An Aside: New Year’s Resolution – Read Almost a Century’s Worth of Newbery Medal Books

This past year (2020) I decided to re-read a few of my favorite books from childhood. I started to notice a theme: many of them were Newbery books and authors! Some were Honors recipients and others were the Medalist themselves. I decided that these children’s book were worth a more thorough investigation.

When I began researching the Newbery Medal program, I found that there is almost 100 years of awards (the first medal was awarded in 1922). Each year there was one medalist and anywhere from one to a handful of runner-ups (Newbery Honor recipients).

The Newbery Medal “is awarded annually by the American Library Association for the most distinguished American children’s book published the previous year.” The purpose of the award is “to encourage original creative work in the field of books for children. To emphasize to the public that contributions to the literature for children deserve similar recognition to poetry, plays, or novels. To give those librarians, who make it their life work to serve children’s reading interests, an opportunity to encourage good writing in this field” (The John Newbery Medal, 2015).

How cool is that?! And what amazing writing is contained in the books on this list!?

I decided that a worthy goal for 2021 would be to read as many of these amazing books as possible before the 100th anniversary of the Newbery Award. If I included both the Medalists and Honors recipients, that would be quite the list of books! The 99 Newbery Medal recipients seemed like a more manageable list.

There’s no guarantee that I’ll make it through the entire list. (That’s almost two books a week! And I’m trying to raise babies at the same time and honestly, who has time for anything extra when you’re raising babies? Am I right??) The goal is more to immerse myself in great Children’s Literature throughout the year and to celebrate the almost 100 years of the Newbery Award.

If anyone wants to join me on this adventure, I’d love to hear about what you’re reading and what you’re enjoying about the books you’ve read. Please let me know what’s you’re reading in the comments below!

Newbery Medalist Books

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

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, illus. by Matt Phelan

2006: Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins

2005: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata

2004: The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread 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

1996: The Midwife’s Apprentice 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

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: 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 Clar

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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Hello! I’m Briana!

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