Wrapping Up a Year of Immersion in Newbery Medal Books

Slightly more than a year ago, I made a resolution to read as many Newbery Medal books as I could before the 100th anniversary of the award, which just occurred in January 2022. Six months in I had read 25 books. At the wrap up of the year, I made it to 35. Definitely not as many as I was planning on reading based off of my pace the first half of the year but, while I was far from reading all 99 books, I was at least able to read the bookend stories, the first and 99th, and many in between.

Today, as I account for my goal, I want to share a few random thoughts from a year of immersing myself in the amazing Children’s Literature of these Newbery Medal books.

Which Newbery Books did I actually end up reading?

2021: When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
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
2013: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
2008: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz
2007: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illus. by Matt Phelan
2003: Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi
1996: The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman
1995: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
1990: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
1986: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
1985: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
1984: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
1981: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
1976: The Grey King by Susan Cooper
1974: The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox
1969: The High King by Lloyd Alexander
1968: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
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
1960: Onion John by Joseph Krumgold
1959: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
1950: The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli
1946: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
1942: The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds
1939: Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright
1936: Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
1931: The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth
1923: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
1922: The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon

I also started Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs (1934 winner) but I just couldn’t get through it. I made it about six chapters and had to move on. This is the only story so far that didn’t grab my attention…which is surprising since every other book on this list has intrigued me more than I would have thought. I also loved reading Louisa May Alcott stories as a girl. Go figure. Maybe I’ll get back around to it in the future.

Which book won the Newbery Medal for 2022?

The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera is the 2022 Newbery Medal winner.

Which books have been favorites?

It’s super hard to pick favorites out of 35 award-winning books! But here are a few that I could for sure see myself re-reading in the future and/or recommending to others (including you!):

• The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
• Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña
• The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
• The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox
• The High King by Lloyd Alexander
• The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
• The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli
• The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth

Unexpected roadblocks to easily accessing all previous Newbery Medal Books

I was surprised that it was so hard to find some of these titles. I thought, due to these books being Newbery Medal winners, that they would all be readily available. However, there were some that were impossible to find, especially many of the earlier ones from the 1920’s and 30’s. I haven’t researched why but one thought is that they might be out of print (but that wouldn’t explain why my local library wouldn’t have these classics available…).

The only solid clue I have is from the appendix of the version of Dr. Doolittle (1923) that I read. It stated that the Dr. Doolittle series have been printed in dozens of languages all around the world but in English, it went out of print years ago. It only came back into print in English with the advent of the movies in more recent decades. And, apparently, the edition of the story that I read was different from the originally published Dr. Doolittle. (I didn’t find that out until I got to the appendix). It was edited to be more culturally and racially sensitive than the way it was originally written.

I can only imagine that similar reasons might account for the difficulty finding some of the earlier published Newbery Medal winners.

Any other thoughts?

I loved getting a concentrated glimpse into the everyday lives of people from different eras, especially those who lived in the decades between 1960 and 1990. These decades in particular were fascinating to me because they had enough that was similar to my own life to feel familiar and yet had so many things that are so very different. Here are some examples:

• There were cars, subways, bikes, talk of space travel even in some of the books
• Yet…what were they eating?? Liverwurst and cream cheese sandwiches! (Wrinkle in Time) Cottage cheese with mayo! (It’s Like This, Cat) Say what??
• And parents just let their kids ride the subway alone all the way to Coney Island?? For that matter, even GO to Coney Island alone? (It’s Like This, Cat)
• Or a kid casually mentions to their dad that they want to wander through the junk yard and dad doesn’t blink an eye. This isn’t an instance of an out-of-the-norm dad. This was simply an ok thing in that era. (Onion John) Amazing.

It was also interesting to get an idea of what topics were important to Americans during the time of each award being issued. More recent books tend to feature characters from a variety of cultures and backgrounds such as Korean-American (When You Trap a Tiger), African-American (Last Stop on Market Street; The Crossover), Deaf (Hello, Universe) and Foster Care/Adoption (The Higher Power of Lucky). Older books seemed to be more often stories that children might enjoy but that didn’t necessarily feature children and preteens themselves (The Story of Mankind; The Cat Who Went to Heaven).

What’s in store for the future?

I plan to continue reading through this list of Newbery award-winners and to eventually read all 100 (or 101…102…it might take me another year or more to get through them at this rate!) I think they’re well worth the read and a fabulous curriculum for what constitutes amazing children’s literature.

Have you read any of Newbery Medal books recently? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below!

Hello! I’m Briana!