The Silver Crown is a 330 page children's fantasy novel written by Robert C. O'Brien, author of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, winner of the 1972 Newbery Medal. The summary by Atheneum Books reads as follows:
It lay beside her on the pillow, shinier than silver, glowing softly, with twinkling blue stones set all around. . . . It did not occur to her to wonder from whom it had come; she was merely aware that it was hers by right."
Ellen wakes on her tenth birthday to find a silver crown on her pillow. She happily wears her strange, new crown to the park that morning, but when she returns she is horrified to find that her house has burned down and her family has disappeared. Ellen must go to her Aunt Sarah's house for help, but the only way to get there is to travel the unforgiving mountains by foot.
Her journey turns treacherous when she and her travel companion, Otto, stumble across an ominous castle where evil rules and everyone who enters falls prey to the darkness within. Everyone, that is, except Ellen. She alone must conquer this mysterious force - but how? Will the power of the silver crown save her?