The Newberry Award medal is given once a year by the American Library Association to the best literature for young readers. Now you may be thinking “Wait just a moment…I’m not a young reader! Why in the world would I care to read ‘literature for young readers’?” Well, because it’s really, really good, that’s why! Truly, these are fantastically crafted, engaging stories that often incorporate some sort of lesson.
What I’ve noticed from reading most of these books is that the major difference between these and what most people think of as “adult fiction” and “children’s fiction” is presence of hardcore (read: badly written) sex and perhaps smarmy love triangles or badly investigated murders. Seriously. That’s it. Every other adult theme is tackled in these stories, and often written about with more skill and understanding than adult fiction books. I highly recommend these books for anyone and everyone who enjoys a good story.
This is a list of the award winners since 1922 (all 366 of them). One of my ultimate goals is to read all of these books. An on-going challenge, I know, but one I’m willing to tackle.
The higher power of Lucky 2007
Penny from Heaven
Hattie Big Sky
Rules
Criss Cross 2006
Whittington
Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow
Princess Academy
Show Way
Kira-Kira 2005
Al Capone Does My Shirts
The Voice that Challenged a Nation
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
The Tale of Despereaux 2004
Olive’s Ocean
An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever
Crispin: the Cross of Lead 2003
The House of the Scorpion
Pictures of Hollis Woods
Hoot
A Corner of the Universe
Surviving the Applewhites
A Single Shard 2002
Everything on a Waffel
Carver: A Life in Poems
A Year Down Yonder 2001
Hope Was Here
Because of Winn-Dixie
Joey Pigza Loses Control
The Wanderer
Budd Not Buddy 2000
Getting Near to Baby
Our Only May Amelia
26 Fairmount Avenue
Holes 1999
A long Way from Chicago
Out of the Dust 1998
Ella Enchanted
Lily’s Crossing
Wringer
The View from Saturday 1997
A Girl Named Disaster
Moorchild
The Thief
Belle Prater’s Boy
The Midwife’s Apprentice 1996
What Jamie Saw
The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963
Yolonda’s Genius
The Great Fire
Walk Two Moons 1995
Catherine, Called Birdy
The Ear, the Eye and the Arm
The Giver 1994
Crazy Lady
Dragon’s Gate
Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery
Missing May 1993
What Hearts
The Dark-thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural
Somewhere in the Darkness
Shiloh 1992
Nothing But the Truth: a Documentary Novel
The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane
Maniac Magee 1991
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
Number the Stars 1990
Afternoon of the Elves
Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind
The Winter Room
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices 1989
In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World
Scorpions
Lincoln: A Photobiography 1988
After the Rain
Hatchet
The Whipping Boy 1987
A Fine White Dust
On My Honor
Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens
Sarah, Plain and Tall 1986
Commodore Perry In the Land ofthe Shogun
Dogsong
The Hero and the Crown 1985
Like Jake andMe
The Moves Make theMan
One-Eyed Cat
Dear Mr. Henshaw 1984
The Sign of the Beaver
A Solitary Blue
Sugaring Time
The Wish Giver: Three Tales of Coven Tree
Dicey’s Song 1983
The Blue Sword
Doctor DeSoto
Graven Images
Homesick: My own Story
Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush
A Visit to William Blake’s Inn 1982
Ramona Quimby, Age 8
Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944
Jacob Have I Loved 1981
The Fledgling
A Ring of Endless Light
A Gathering of Days: A New Englands Girl’s Journal, 1930-1832 1980
The Road from Home: The Story of an Armenian Girl
The Westing Game 1979
The Great Gilly Hopkins
Bridge to Terabithia 1978
Ramona and Her Father
Anpao: An American Indian Odssey
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry 1977
Abel’s Island
A String in the Harp
The Grey King 1976
The Hundred Penny Box
Dragonwings
M.C. Higgins, the Great 1975
Figgs & Phantoms
My Brother Sam is Dead
The Perilous Gard
Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe
The Slave Dancer 1974
The Dark is Rising
Julie of the Wolves 1973
Frog and Toad Together
The Upstairs Room
The Witches of Worm
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH 1972
Incident at Hawk’s Hill
The Planet of Junior Brown
The Tombs of Atuan
Annie and the Old One
The Headless Cupid
Summer of the Swans 1971
Knee Knock Rise
Enchantress From the Stars
Sing Down the Moon
Sounder 1970
Our Eddie
The Many Ways of Seeing: An Introduction to the Pleasures of Art
Journey Outside
The High King 1969
To Be a Slave
When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler 1968
Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth
The Black Pearl
The Fearsome Inn
The Egypt Game
Up a Road Slowly 1967
The King’s Fifth
Zlateh The Goat and Other Stories
The Jazz Man
I, Juan de Pareja 1966
The Black Cauldron
The Animal Family
The Noonday Friends
Shadow of a Bull 1965
Across Five Aprils
It’s Like This, Cat 1964
Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era
The Loner
A Wrinkle in Time 1963
Thistle and Thyme: Tales and Legends from Scotland
Men of Athens
The Bronze Bow 1962
Frontier Living
The Golden Goblet
Belling the Tiger
Island of the Blue Dolphins 1961
America Moves Forward: A History for Peter
Old Ramon
The Cricket in Times Square
Onion John 1960
My Side of the Mountain
America is Born: A History for Peter
The Gammage Cup
The Witch of Blackbird Pond 1959
The Family Under the Bridge
Along Came a Dog
Chucaro: Wild Pony of the Pampa
The Perilous Road
Rifles for Watie 1958
The Horsecatcher
Gone-Away Lake
The Great Wheel
Tom Paine, Freedom’s Apostle
Miracles on Maple Hill 1957
Old Yeller
The House of Sixty Fathers
Mr. Justice Holmes
The Corn Grows Ripe
Black Fox of Lorne
Carry on, Mr. Bowditch 1956
The Secret River
The Golden Name Day
Men, Microscopes, and Living Things
The Wheel on the School 1955
Courage of Sarah Noble
Banner in the Sky
…And Now Miguel 1954
All Alone
Shadrach
Hurry Home, Candy
Theodore Roosevelt, Fighting Patriot
Magic Maize
Secret of the Andes 1953
Charlotte’s Web
Moccasin Trail
Red Sails to Capri
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain
Birethdays of Freedom, Vol. 1
Ginger Pye 1952
Americans Before Columbus
Minn of the Mississippi
The Defender
The Light at Tern Rock
The Apple and the Arrow
Amos Fortune, Free Man 1951
Better Known as Johnny Appleseed
Gandhi, Fighter Without a Sword
Abraham Lincoln, Friend of the People
The Story of Appleby Capple
The Door in the Wall 1950
Tree of Freedom
The Blue Cat of Castle Town
Kildee House
George Washington
Song of the Pines
King of the Wind 1949
Seabird
Daughter of the Mountains
My Father’s Dragon
Story of the Negro
The Twenty-One Balloons 1948
Pancakes-Paris
Li Lun, Lad of Courage
The Quaint and Curious Quest of Johnny Longfoot
The Cow-Tail Switch, and Other West African Stories
Misty of Chincoteague
Miss Hickory 1947
Wonderful Year
Big Tree
The Heavenly Tenants
The Avion My Uncle Flew
The Hidden Treasure of Glaston
Strawberry Girl 1946
Justin Morgan Had a Horse
The Moved-Outers
Bhimsa, the Dancing Bear
New Found World
Rabbit Hill 1945
The Hundred Dresses
The Silver Pencil
Abraham Lincoln’s World
Lone journey: The Life of Roger Williams
Johnny Tremain 1944
These Happy Golden Years
Fog Magic
Rufus M.
Mountain Born
Adam of the Road 1943
The Middle Moffat
Have You Seen Tom Thumb?
The Matchlock Gun 1942
Little Town on the Prairie
George Washington’s World
Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison
Down Rayton Water
Call It Courage 1941
Blue Willow
Young Mac of Fort Vancouver
The Long Winter
Nansen
Daniel Boone (Daugherty) 1940
The Singing Tree
Runner of the Mountain Tops
By the Shores of Silver Lake
Boy with a Pack
Thimble Summer 1939
Nino
Mr. Popper’s Penguins
Hello the Boat!
Leader By Destiny: George Washington Man and Patriot
Penn
The White Stag 1938
Pecos Bill
Bright Island
On the Banks of Plum Creek
Roller Skates 1937
Phebe Fairchild: Her Book
Whistler’s Van
The Golden Basket
Winterbound
The Codfish Musket
Audubon
Caddie Woodlawn 1936
Honk, the Moose
The Good Master
Young Walter Scott
All Sail Set: A Romance of the Flying Cloud
Dobry 1935
pageant of Chinese History
Davy Crockett
Day on Skates: The Story of a Dutch Picnic
Invincible Luisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women 1934
The Forgotten Daughter
Swords of Steel
ABC Bunny
Winged Girl of Knossos
New Land
Big Tree of Bunlahy
Glory of the Seas
Apprentice of Florence
Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze 1933
Swift Rivers
The Railroad to Freedom
Children of the Soil: A Story of Scandinavia
Waterless Mountain 1932
The Fairy Circus
Calico Bush
Boy of the South Seas
Out of the Flame
Jane’s Island
Truce of the Wolf and Other Tales of Old Italy
The Cat Who Went to Heaven 1931
Floating Island
The Dark Star of Itza: The Story of A Pagan Princess
Queer Person
Mountains are Free
Spice and the Devil’s Cave
Meggy MacIntosh
Garram the Hunter: A Boy of the Hill Tribes
Ood-Le-Uk the Wanderer
Hitty, Her First Hundred Years 1930
A Daughter of the Seine: The Life of Madame Roland
Pran of Albania
Jumping-Off Place
The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales
Vaino
Little Blacknose
The Trumpeter of Krakow 1929
Pigtail of Ah Lee Ben Loo
Millions of Cats
The Boy Who Was
Clearing Weather
Runaway Paoose
Tod of the Fens
Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon 1928
The Wonder Smith and His Son
Downright Dencey
Smoky, the Cowhorse 1927
Shen of the Sea 1926
The Voyagers: Being Legends and Romances of Atlantic Discovery
Tales from Silver Lands 1925
Nicholas: A Manhattan Christmas Story
The Dream Coach
The Dark Frigate 1924
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle 1923
The Story of Mankind 1922
The Great Quest
Cedric the Forester
The Old Tobacco Shop: A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of Adventure
The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles
The Windy Hill
The Bibliophilists 