Newbery Award Winners

The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

2009

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman has once again created a world filled with both dark humor and adventure. Nobody Owens, orphaned as an infant, is raised by the ghosts, ghouls, and werewolves of a graveyard. Exciting and oddly touching!
Recommended by Rachael, Powells.com

2008

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz

Synopsis
Maidens, monks, and millers' sons — in these pages, readers will meet them all. There's Hugo, the lord's nephew, forced to prove his manhood by hunting a wild boar; sharp-tongued Nelly, who supports her family by selling live eels; and the peasant's daughter, Mogg, who gets a clever lesson in how to save a cow from a greedy landlord.

2007

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

Synopsis
Lucky, age ten, doesn't expect running away to be so complicated. A large cast of magnanimous surprises awaits her when she plans to hide from her guardian in the Mojave Desert.

2006

Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins

Review
"It begins with Debbie's yearning for something to happen. What happens is a poetic melange of sweetly ordinary moments....A tenderly existential work that will reward more thoughtful readers." Kirkus Reviews

2005

Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata

Review
"Kadohata stays true to the child's viewpoint in plain, beautiful prose that can barely contain the passionate feelings....The quiet words will speak to readers who have lost someone they love — or fear that they could." Booklist (Starred Review)

2004

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

Publisher Comments
From the master storyteller who brought us Because of Winn-Dixie comes another classic, a fairy tale full of quirky, unforgettable characters, featuring twenty-four stunning black-and-white illustrations by Timothy Basil Ering, in an elegant design that pays tribute to the best in classic children’s books and bookmaking traditions.

2003

Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi

Publisher Comments
"Asta's son" is all he's ever been called. The lack of name is appropriate, because he and his mother are but poor peasants in fourteenth-century medieval England. But this thirteen-year-old boy who thought he had little to lose soon finds himself with even less � no home, family, or possessions. Accused of a crime he did not commit, he has been declared a "wolf's head." That means he may be killed on sight, by anyone.

2002

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

Publisher Comments
Tree-ear, an orphan, has become fascinated with the potters' craft; he wants nothing more than to watch master potter Min at work, and he dreams of making a pot of his own someday. When Min takes on Tree-ear as his helper, Tree-ear is elated — until he finds obstacles in his path: the backbreaking labor of digging and hauling clay, Min's irascible temper, and his own ignorance. However, Tree-ear is determined to prove himself.

2001 A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck
2000 Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
1999 Holes by Louis Sachar
1998 Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
1997 The View From Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg
1996 The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman
1995 Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
1994 The Giver by Lois Lowry
1993 Missing May by Cynthia Rylant
1992 Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
1991 Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
1990 Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
1989 Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman
1988 Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman
1987 The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman
1986 Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia Maclachlan
1985 The Hero and the Crown by Robin Mckinley
1984 Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
1983 Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt
1982 A Visit To William Blake's Inn by Nancy Willard
1981 Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
1980 A Gathering of Days by Joan W. Blos
1979 The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
1978 Bridge To Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
1977 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
1976 The Grey King by Susan Cooper
1975 M.C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton
1974 The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox
1973 Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
1972 Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh (aladdin) by Robert C. O'brien
1971 The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Cromer Byars
1970 Sounder by William H. Armstrong
1969 The High King by Lloyd Alexander
1968 From the Mixed-up File of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
1967 Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt
1966 I, Juan De Pareja by Elizabeth Borton De Trevino
1965 Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska
1964 It's Like This Cat by Emily Cheney Neville
1963 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'engle
1962 The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
1961 Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'dell
1960 Onion John by Joseph Krumgold
1959 The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
1958 Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith
1957 Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Eggertsen Sorensen
1956 Carry on Mr Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
1955 The Wheel on the School by Meindert De Jong
1954 And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold
1953 Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark
1952 Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes
1951 Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates
1950 The Door in the Wall by Marguerite De Angeli
1949 King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry
1948 The Twenty-one Balloons by William Paene Du Bois
1947 Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
1946 Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
1945 Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
1944 Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
1943 Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray
1942 The Matchlock Gun by Walter D. Edmonds
1941 Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry
1940 Daniel Boone by James Daugherty
1939 Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright
1938 The White Stag by Kate Seredy
1937 Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer
1936 Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
1935 Dobry by Monica. Shannon
1934 Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs
1933 Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis
1932 Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer
1931 The Cat Who Went To Heaven by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth
1930 Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field
1929 The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly
1928 Gay Neck by Dhan Gopal Mukerji
1927 Smoky the Cowhorse by Will James
1926 Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman
1925 Tales From the Silver Lands by Charles Finger
1924 The Dark Frigate by Charles Boardman Hawes
1923 The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
1922 The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem Van Loon