The Complete List of Newbery Medal Winners, Annotated
A few years ago, my sister and I had the idea to read every book on the Newbery Medal Winners list.
There has been one winner every year since 1922, so that’s… a lot of books. I figure as long as I’m reading 2 or more a year, I’m making progress… I’ll get there eventually! And it’s a good list — you could do worse than to pick up a few Newbery Medal Winners to add to your stacks.
Here is the list, with a few of my thoughts. Let me know your favorites in the comments!
2016: Last Stop On Market Street by Matt de la Peña
Last Stop On Market Street is a good one. I also liked Matt de la Peña’s short story in My True Love Gave To Me, so I think it’s time I picked up some of his other books as well.
2015: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
For all basketball fans. Although I also really loved it and I’m not that much of a sports girl.
2014: Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiDamillo
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
2009: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
I want to read The Graveyard Book, but I’m scared! Is it scary?
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
E. L. Konigsburg is one of only a few authors to have won the Newbery more than once…which is awesome because her books are great.
1996: The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman
1995: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
I’m a big Sharon Creech fan…this one and Bloomability are my favorites.
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
A gripping look at World War Two through the eyes of a ten-year-old. I was about that age when I read it and I still remember certain scenes vividly.
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
A quick read, which you must follow up by watching the 1991 Hallmark Hall of Fame classic, improbably starring Glenn Close and Christopher Walken.
1985: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
1984: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
I don’t know what it is about books with actual handwriting in them, but I just loved them as a kid. Besides, you can’t go wrong with 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
This is a great book! One of my favorites of all time. It’s the story of Claudia Kincaid and her brother Jamie, who decide to run away from home… and go live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art instead. Read it… I know you’ll love it.
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
I somehow managed to miss this one when I was a kid, but I’ve read it more than once as an adult. (There’s also a graphic novel which is great.) “It was a dark and stormy night…”
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
My mom read this one out loud to us when we were little. One of my favorite Newbery Medal Winners.
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 Pene du Bois
1947: Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
1946: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
Lois Lenski illustrated the first four Betsy-Tacy books (a series I love) and also, you know, managed to win a Newbery for her own novel.
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
Oh man, how I loved the story of the adventurous Caddie Woodlawn when I was a kid… I read it over and over.
1935: Dobry by Monica Shannon
1934: Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs
If you like Little Women, you definitely want to try this one.
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
And it all started here… with the first-ever Newbery Medal going to The Story of Mankind. I’m a bit of a history nerd, and this one has always sounded fascinating to me.
So those are just a few of my thoughts on the illustrious Newbery Medal Winners over the years… now I would love to hear your thoughts. How many have you read? Which ones are your favorites? What should I pick up next?
