Newbery Honor Book
The Newbery Honor Books are runners-up to the Newberry Medal, which is awarded each year for the preceding year’s most distinguished American picture book for children.
The medal is named in honor of John Newbery. He was an eighteenth-century British publisher of juvenile books. He made it a priority to create books specifically for children.
No Award was given in 1923, 1924, or 1927. That is because no book was considered suitable.
Learn more: official Newberry Medal and Honor homepage.
Winners:
The Cow-Tail Switch: And Other West African Stories (1947)
George Herzog
Li Lun: Lad of Courage (1947)
Because of his fear of the sea, a young Chinese boy is sent to a distant mountain where he proves his bravery. Banished to a mountaintop to learn to grow rice, Li Lun proves his courage as he fights the elements and his own loneliness to make his rice seedling flourish where no one else has for generations.
My Father’s Dragon (1948)
When an alley cat he befriends tells Elmer Elevator about the captive baby dragon on Wild Island, he determines to go to the island and set him free.
Read online at archive.org.
Daughter of the Mountains (1948)
Momo undertakes a dangerous journey from the mountains of Tibet to the city of Calcutta, in search of her stolen dog Pempa.
Seabird (1948)
The Seabird follows the history of American seafaring.
Read online at archive.org.
Lucille Webster Holling
Song of the Pines: A Story of Norwegian Lumbering in Wisconsin (1949)
Walter Havighurst
George Washington (1949)
Gandhi, Fighter Without a Sword (1950)
The Apple and the Arrow (1951)
Mary M. Buff
Mary M. Buff