Newbery Medal
The Newberry Medal is awarded each year to the author of the previous year’s most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. Runners-up are called Newbery Honor Books.
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.
The Newberry Medal and the Caldecott Medal are the most prestigious American Children’s Book awards.
No Award was given in 1923, 1924, or 1927. That is because no book was considered suitable.
Learn more: official Newberry Medal homepage.
Winners:
Island of the Blue Dolphins (1960)
The story of an Indian girl named Karana who survives by herself for eighteen years on a deserted island off the California coast.
The Bronze Bow (1961)
A Wrinkle in Time (1963)
When their scientist father disappears whilst on a secret mission, two children and a friend search for him through time and space by a process of "tessering."
It’s Like This, Cat (1963)
Shadow of a Bull (1964)
I, Juan de Pareja (1965)
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1967)
Sounder (1969)
Summer of the Swans (1970)
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1971)
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1976)
A clear-eyed look at the American south at the time of the Great Depression through the eyes of a young African American girl.