Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Newbery-Winning Books

Last updated 6/16/2020.

Newbery Medal Winners:

1922-2020

The Newbery Medal is an annual award given to a single book deemed representative of excellence in children's literature for that year. Because I have written middle-grade fiction, I delved into the Newbery list a few years ago and started reading them. For an assessment of what I've learned, check out my blog post from October 2014.

Here is a full list of the Newbery winners. Note: the year is when the book won the award, not necessarily its year of publication. Links go to my personal reviews of the books - and what I learned from them as a writer. I've read books marked with an asterisk, but have not reviewed them.

  • 2020: New Kid by Jerry Craft
  • 2019: Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina
  • 2018: Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly
  • 2017: The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
  • 2016: Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña
  • 2015: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
  • 2014: Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo
  • 2013: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
  • 2012: Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
  • 2011: Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
  • 2010: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

    This was the first one I read, the one which started me on this journey.


  • 2009: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, illus. by Dave McKean
  • 2008: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village 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

    Possibly my favorite yet.


  • 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 Appprentice 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 *

    The most thought-provoking. Sort of a George Orwell '1984' for kids.


  • 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: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard
  • 1981: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson *
  • 1980: A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos
  • 1979: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
  • 1978: The 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 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 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: The Story of the Author of Little Women 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 Hawes
  • 1923: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
  • 1922: The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon

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