Upon Googling Oprah Book Club No. 56., a link to HarperCollins appears and the author identified is Joseph Krumgold. He is a Newberry Medal winning author.
The Amazon Oprah Book Club #56 profile lists Harper as the publisher, only the imprint is Harper Perennial.
Of course, this could just be a Harper Collins glitch. Or not.
edited to add that Mr.Krumgold passed away in 1980. I wonder if the author is always alive for Oprah to pick the book
























It’s a glitch. Oprah has picked dead authors before (John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Carson McCullers), but (1) the Harper reps are selling the title, according to Publishers Weekly , as “nonfiction” and Krumgold (as far as I know) published only fiction and (2) I can’t imagine Oprah picking a children’s book for her club.