The Newbery Medal is awarded annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children published in the preceding year. It is known for being the first award given to a children's book. Along with a winner, the award also highlights a few more titles as honorees. The reading level for these titles generally range between grade 3 to grade 6.

 

 

2016

Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena

A young boy rides the bus across town with his grandmother and learns to appreciate the beauty in everyday things.

2015

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

Fourteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health.

2014

Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo

Rescuing a squirrel after an accident involving a vacuum cleaner, comic-reading cynic Flora Belle Buckman is astonished when the squirrel, Ulysses, demonstrates astonishing powers of strength and flight after being revived.

2013

The One and Only Ivan  by Katherine Applegate   2013
When Ivan, a gorilla who has lived for years in a down-and-out circus-themed mall, meets Ruby, a baby elephant that has been added to the mall, he decides that he must find her a better life.

2012

Dead End in Norvelt   by Jack Gantos
In the historic town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, typewriting, and countless bloody noses.

2011

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
Twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker is the daughter of a drifter who, in the summer of 1936, send her to stay with an old friend in Manifest, Kansas, where he grew up, and where she hopes to find out some things about his past/

2010

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1980s television game show, "The $20,000 Pyramid," a twelve-year-old New York City girl tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from an anonymous source that seems to defy the laws of time and space.

2009

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Nobody Owens is a normal boy, except that he has been raised by ghosts and other denizens of the graveyard..

2008

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices From a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz                
A collection of short one-person plays featuring characters, between ten and fifteen years old, who live in or near a thirteenth-century English manor.

2007

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron
Fearing that her legal guardian plans to abandon her to return to France, ten-year-old aspiring scientist Lucky Trimble determines to run away while also continuing to seek the Higher Power that will bring stability to her life.

2006

Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
Teenagers in a small town in the 1960s experience new thoughts and feelings, question their identities, connect, and disconnect as they search for the meaning of life and love.

2005

Kira-Kira  by Cynthia Kadohata
Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair when one sister becomes terminally ill.

2004

Tale of Despereaux  by Kate Dicamillo
The adventures of Desperaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin.

2003

Crispin: The Cross of Lead  by Avi
Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret.

2002

A Single Shard  by Linda Sue Park
Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives under a bridge in a potters' village, and longs to learn how to throw the delicate celadon ceramics himself.

2001

A Year Down Yonder  by Richard Peck
During the recession of 1937, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice is sent to live with her feisty, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois and comes to a better understanding of this fearsome woman.

2000

Bud, Not Buddy  by Christopher Paul Curtis
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids

1999

Holes  by Louis Sachar
As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.

1998

Out Of the Dust  by Karen Hesse
In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.

1997

The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg
Four students, with their own individual stories, develop a special bond and attract the attention of their teacher, a paraplegic, who chooses them to represent their sixth-grade class in the Academic Bowl competition.

1996

The Midwife’s Apprentice  by Karen Cushman
In medieval England, a nameless, homeless girl is taken in by a sharp-tempered midwife, and in spite of obstacles and hardship, eventually gains the three things she most wants: a full belly, a contented heart, and a place in this world.

1995

Walk Two Moons  by Sharon Creech
After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left.

1994

The Giver by Lois Lowry
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.

1993

Missing May by Cynthia Rylant
After the death of the beloved aunt who has raised her, twelve-year-old Summer and her uncle Ob leave their West Virginia trailer in search of the strength to go on living.

1992

Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
When he finds a lost beagle in the hills behind his West Virginia home, Marty tries to hide it from his family and the dog's real owner, a mean-spirited man known to shoot deer out of season and to mistreat his dogs.

1991

Maniac Magee   by Jerry Spinelli
He came into this world named Jeffrey Lionel Magee, but when his parents died and his life changed, so did his name. And Maniac Magee became a legend.

1990

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.

1989

Joyful Noise by Paul Fleischman
Written to be read aloud by two voices -- sometimes alternating, sometimes simultaneous -- here is a collection of irresistible poems that celebrate the insect world, from the short life of the mayfly to the love song of the book louse.

1988

Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman
A description of the boyhood, marriage, and young professional life of Abraham Lincoln includes his presidential years and also reflects on the latest scholarly thoughts about our Civil War president.

1987

The Whipping Boy  by Sid Fleischman
A bratty prince and his whipping boy have many adventures when they inadvertently trade places after becoming involved with dangerous outlaws.

1986

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
When their father invites a mail-order bride to come live with them in their prairie home, Caleb and Anna are captivated by their new mother and hope that she will stay.

1985

Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
Aerin, with the guidance of the wizard Luthe and the help of the blue sword, wins the birthright due her as the daughter of the Damarian king and a witchwoman of the mysterious, demon-haunted North.

1984

Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
In his letters to his favorite author, ten-year-old Leigh reveals his problems in coping with his parents' divorce, being the new boy in school, and generally finding his own place in the world

1983

Dicey’s Song by Cynthia Voight
Now that the four abandoned Tillerman children are settled in with their grandmother, Dicey finds that their new beginnings require love, trust, humor, and courage.

1982

A Visit to William Blake’s Inn by Nancy Willard
Inspired by William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, this delightful collection of poetry for children brings to life Blake's imaginary inn and its unusual guests

1981

Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
Feeling deprived all her life of schooling, friends, mother, and even her name by her twin sister, Louise finally begins to find her identity.

1980

A Gathering of Days by Joan W. Blos
The journal of a 14-year-old girl, kept the last year she lived on the family farm, records daily events in her small New Hampshire town, her father’s remarriage, and the death of her best friend.

1979

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim their inheritance.

1978

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
The life of a ten-year-old boy in rural Virginia expands when he becomes friends with a newcomer who subsequently meets an untimely death trying to reach their hideaway, Terabithia, during a storm.

1977

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor
A black family living in Missippippi during the Depression of the 1930s is faced with prejudice and discrimination which its children do not understand.

1976

The Grey King by Susan Cooper
In this fourth book of The Dark Is Rising sequence, Will Stanton, visiting in Wales, is swept into a desperate quest to find the golden harp and to awaken the ancient Sleepers.

1975

M.C. Higgins the Great by Virginia Hamilton
As a slag heap, the result of strip mining creeps closer to his house in the Ohio hills, fifteen-year-old M. C.is torn between trying to get his family away and fighting for the home they love.

1974

The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox
Kidnapped by the crew of an Africa-bound ship, a thirteen-year-old boy discovers to his horror that he is on a slaver and his job is to play music for the exercise periods of the human cargo

1973

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack.

1972

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert O’Brian
Having no one to help her with her problems, a widowed mouse visits the rats whose former imprisonment in a laboratory made them wise and long lived.

1971

Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars
A teen-age girl gains new insight into herself and her family when her mentally retarded brother gets lost.

1970

Sounder by William Armstrong
A young Negro boy learns the pain of humiliation and anger when his father is given an unjust jail sentence for stealing a ham from a white man. Learning to read and to discover that things do not die but become part of other things brings the youngster new hope.

1969

The High King by Lloyd Alexander
In this final part of the chronicle of Prydain the forces of good and evil meet in an ultimate confrontation, which determines the fate of Taran, the Assistant Pig-Keeper who wanted to be a hero.

1968

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
Twelve-year-old Claudia and her brother Jamie run away to New York and take up residence in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There she sees a statue so beautiful she wants to discover its maker. The first clue is the statue's former owner, an unusual old woman named Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

1967

Up A Road Slowly by Irene Hunt
After her mother's death, Julie goes to live with Aunt Cordelia, a school teacher, where she experiences many emotions and changes as she grows from seven to eighteen

1966

I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Trevino
Juan is the slave of the great Spanish painter Diego Valazquez and helps his master in his studio by preparing paints and stretching canvases. But Juan is an artist, too: he has taught himself by watching his master's technique. Although such work is forbidden by slaves, Juan cannot keep his secret any longer.What will happen when the truth is known?

1965

Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska
Manolo Olivar has to make a decision: to follow in his famous father's  shadow and become a bullfighter, or to follow his heart and become a doctor

1964

It’s Like This Cat by Emily Neville
Dave Mitchell and his father yell at each other a lot, and whenever the fighting starts, Dave's mother gets an asthma attack. That's when Dave storms out of the house. Then Dave meets Tom, a strange boy who helps him rescue Cat. It isn't long before Cat introduces Dave to Mary, a wonderful girl from Coney Island. Slowly Dave comes to see the complexities in people's lives and to understand himself and his family a little better.

1963

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government.

1962

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth Speare
After witnessing his father's crucifixion by Roman soldiers, Daniel bar Jamin is determined to avenge his father's death by driving the Roman legions from the land of Israel. Daniel joins the brutal raids of an outlaw band living in the hills outside his village. Though his grandmother's death slows his plans by forcing him to move home to care for his sister, he continues his dangerous life by leading a group of boy guerrillas in spying and plotting, impatiently waiting to take revenge

1961

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
Records the courage and self-reliance of an Indian girl who lived alone for eighteen years on an isolated island off the California coast.

1960

Onion John by Joseph Krumgold
His friendship with the town odd-jobs man, Onion John, causes a conflict between Andy and his father.

1959

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth Speare
In 1687 in Connecticut, Kit Tyler, feeling out of place in the Puritan household of her aunt, befriends an old woman considered a witch by the community and suddenly finds herself standing trial for witchcraft.

1958

Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith
The story of Jeff Bussey, a farm boy living in 1861, who joins the Union army and goes on an important mission to discover how Stand Waite and his Confederate Cherokee Rebels are receiving repeating rifles from northern manufacturers.

1957

Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen
After her father returns from the war moody and tired, Marly's family decides to move from the city to Maple Hill Farm in the Pennsylvania countryside where they share many adventures which help restore their spirits and their bond with each other.

1956

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Lathan
After finding a way to teach the ship's crew members to understand navigation, Nat, a self-taught mathematician and astronomer in eighteenth-century Salem, Massachusetts, writes down his explanations and compiles them into "The American Practical Navigator," also known as the "Sailors' Bible."

1955

The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong
Why do the storks no longer come to the little Dutch fishing village of Shora to nest? It was Lina, one of the six schoolchildren who first asked the question, and she set the others to wondering. And sometimes when you begin to wonder, you begin to make things happen. So the children set out to bring the storks back to Shora. The force of their vision put the whole village to work until at last the dream began to come true.

1954

And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold
Miguel, the middle child of the Chavez family, lives near Taos, New Mexico, and longs to go with the men of his family to the Sangre de Christo Mountains.

1953

Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark
An Indian boy who tends llamas in a hidden valley in Peru learns the traditions and secrets of his Inca ancestors.

1952

Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes
The disappearance of a new puppy named Ginger and the appearance of a mysterious man in a mustard yellow hat bring excitement into the lives of the Pye children.

1951

Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates
The life of the eighteenth-century African prince who, after being captured by slave traders, was brought to Massachusetts where he was a slave until he was able to buy his freedom at the age of sixty.

1950

Door in the Wall by Maia Wojciechowska
When Robin, the son of a nobleman, falls and loses the use of his legs, he is abandoned and left alone. A monk named Brother Luke rescues Robin and takes him to the hospice of St. Mark's where he is taught woodcarving and--much harder--patience and strength. Winner of the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award.

1949

King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry
Traces the abuses and triumphs of the Arabian stallion who became a founding sire of the Thoroughbred breed, and of the mute Arabian boy who tended him as long as he lived.

1948

The Twenty-One Balloons by William DuBois
Professor William Waterman Sherman intends to fly across the Pacific Ocean. But through a twist of fate, he lands on Krakatoa, and discovers a world of unimaginable wealth, eccentric inhabitants, and incredible balloon inventions.

1947

Miss Hickory by Carolyn Bailey
Miss Hickory is very worried. Her owner has moved to Boston, and how can Miss Hickory survive a harsh New Hampshire winter all alone? After all, she is just a doll whose body is an apple-wood twig and whose head is a hickory nut, and whose house is made out of corncobs.

1946

Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
Lively adventures of a little girl, full of the flavor of the Florida lake country.

1945

Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
New folks are coming to live in the Big House. The animals of Rabbit Hill of wonder if they will plant a garden and thus be good providers

1944

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
Johnny Tremain, a young apprentice silversmith, is caught up in the danger and excitement of 1775 Boston, just before the Revolutionary War. But even more gripping than living through the drama of Revolutionary Boston is the important discovery Johnny makes in his own life.

1943

Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Gray
The adventures of eleven-year-old Adam as he travels the open roads of thirteenth-century England searching for his missing father, a minstrel, and his stolen red spaniel, Nick.

1942

Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds
In 1756, during the French and Indian War in upper New York state, ten-year-old Edward is determined to protect his home and family with the ancient, and much too heavy, Spanish gun that his father had given him before leaving home to fight the enemy.

1941

Call it Courage by Armstrong Sperry
Relates how Mafatu, a young Polynesian boy whose name means Stout Heart, overcomes his terrible fear of the sea and proves his courage to himself and his people.

1940

Daniel Boone by James Daugherty
Daniel Boone was a farmer who couldn’t stay put. Something was always pulling him westward into new and mysterious lands.

1939

Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright
When Garnet finds a silver thimble in the sand by the river, she is sure it's magical. But is it magical enough to help her pig, Timmy, win a blue ribbon on Fair Day?

1938

The White Stag by Kate Seredy
Retells the legendary story of the Huns' and Magyars' long migration from Asia to Europe where they hope to find a permanent home.

1937

Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer
This is a delightful story of old New York, and about a tomboy who could not help being a lady at the same time.

1936

Caddie Woodlawn  by Carol Brink
The adventures of an eleven-year-old tomboy growing up on the Wisconsin frontier in the mid-nineteenth century

1935

Dobry  by Monica Shannon
This story gives older boys and girls a sense of what the land means to the people who live on it, and the power of an idea to direct a boy’s life.

1934

Invincible Louisa  by Cornelia Meigs
The story of the author of Little Women: Invincible Louisa May Alcott

1933

Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze  by Elizabeth Lewis
When Young Fu arrives with his mother in bustling 1920s Chungking, all he has seen of the world is the rural farming village where he has grown up. He knows nothing of city life. But the city, with its wonders and dangers, fascinates the thirteen-year-old boy, and he sets out to make the best of what it has to offer him.

1932

Waterless Mountain  by Laura Adams Armer
This is an authentic novel about an eight-year-old Navaho boy's training as a medicine man--a living record of the Navaho way of life before the influence of the white man.

1931

The Cat Who Went to Heaven  by Elizabeth Coatsworth
This is the story of a little cat who came to the home of a poor Japanese artist and, by humility and devotion, brought him good fortune.

1930

Hitty, Her First Hundred Years  by Rachel Field
Hitty, or Mehitable as she was really named, was made in the early 1800s for Phoebe Preble, a little girl from Maine. Young Phoebe was very proud of her beautiful doll and took her everywhere. This is the story of Hitty's years with Phoebe, and the many that follow in the life of a well-loved doll.

1929

The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly
A Polish family in the Middle Ages guards a great secret treasure and a boy’s memory of an earlier trumpeter of Krakow makes it possible for him to save his father.

1928

Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon  by Dhan Mukerji          
The story of the training of a carrier pigeon and its service during the First World War, revealing the bird's courageous and spirited adventures over the housetops of an Indian village, in the Himalayan Mountains, and on the French battlefield.

1927

Smoky, the Cowhorse  by Will James
The experiences of a mouse-colored horse from his birth in the wild, through his capture by humans and his work in the rodeo and on the range, to his eventual old age.

1926

Shen of the Sea  by Arthur Chrisman
Sixteen original stories reflecting the spirit of Chinese life and thought.

1925

Tales from Silver Lands  by Charles Finger
This book is about many fascinating tales of the South American Indians.

1924

The Dark Frigate  by Charles Hawes
In seventeenth-century England, orphaned Philip Marsham, forced to flee London after a terrible accident, finds himself in an even more difficult situation when his ship is taken over by pirates and he is forced to become a member of their crew.

1923

The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle  by Hugh Lofting
Accompanied by nine-year-old Tommy Stubbins, Jip the Dog, and Polynesia the Parrot, the good doctor sets off on an adventure-packed voyage to search for a missing colleague. After a nasty shipwreck, the fearless adventurers become stranded on a mysterious island -- where they meet even more mysterious creatures.

1922

The Story of Mankind  by Hendrik Van Loon
Chronicles the history of man and civilization from primitive beginnings to the current day.

For a complete list of all winners and honorees, visit the Newbery Award Winners page at the American Library Association.