THE JOHN NEWBERY MEDAL
The Newbery Medal 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 American children's book published the previous year.
On June 22, 1921, Frederic G. Melcher proposed the award to the American
Library Association meeting of the Children's Librarians' Section and
suggested that it be named for the eighteenth-century English bookseller John
Newbery. The idea was accepted by the children's librarians, and Melcher's
official proposal was approved by the ALA Executive Board in 1922.
In Melcher's formal agreement with the board, the purpose of the Newbery
Medal was stated as follows: "To encourage original creative work in the
field of books for children. To emphasize to the public that contributions to
the literature for children deserve similar recognition to poetry, plays, or
novels. To give those librarians, who make it their life work to serve
children's reading interests, an opportunity to encourage good writing in
this field."
The Newbery Medal was designed by René Paul Chambellan. The bronze medal has
the winner's name and the date engraved on the back. The Newbery Award thus
became the first children's book award in the world. Its terms, as well as
its long history, continue to make it the best known and most discussed
children's book award in this country.
From the beginning of the awarding of the Newbery Medals, committees could,
and usually did, cite other books as worthy of attention. Such books were
referred to as Newbery "runners-up." In 1971 the term "runners-up" was
changed to "honor books." The new terminology was made retroactive so that
all former runners-up are now referred to as Newbery or Caldecott Honor Books.
Please note that not every title is appropriate for the elementary school
level.
* 2010 - When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
* 2009 - The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
* 2008 - Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! by Laura Amy Schlitz
* 2007 - The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron
* 2006 - Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
* 2005 - Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
* 2004 - The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
* 2003 - Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi
* 2002 - A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
* 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 by Robert C. O'Brien
* 1971 - Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars
* 1970 - Sounder by William H. Armstrong
* 1969 - The High King by Lloyd Alexander
* 1968 - From the Mixed-Up Files 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 Neville
* 1963 - A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
* 1962 - The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George
* 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 Sorensen
* 1956 - Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
* 1955 - The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong
* 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 Pène 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 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 by Cornelia Meigs
* 1933 - Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis
* 1932 - Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer
* 1931 - The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth
* 1930 - Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field
* 1929 - The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly
* 1928 - Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji
* 1927 - Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James
* 1926 - Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman
* 1925 - Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger
* 1924 - The Dark Frigate by Charles
* 1923 - The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
* 1922 - The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon
