Newbery Medal and Honor Books

Established 1922. A medal presented annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children published in the United States in the preceding year. The recipients must be citizens or residents of the United States.

Often Honor Books are named. There is no limit on the number of Honor Books, and none need be named. Usually, two or three Honor Books are named in addition to the medal winner each year.

Newbery Medal History and Criteria

1999

Louis Sachar, Holes (Frances Foster/Farrar Straus Giroux)

Honor Book:

• Richard Peck, A Long Way from Chicago (Dial)

1998

Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse (Scholastic)

Honor Books:

• Ella Enchanted, Gail Carson Levine (HarperCollins)
• Lily's Crossing, Patricia Reilly Giff (Delacorte)
• Wringer, Jerry Spinelli (HarperCollins)

1997

The View from Saturday, by E.L. Konigsburg

Honor Books:

• A Girl Named Disaster, by Nancy Farmer
• The Moorchild, by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
• The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner
• Belle Prater's Boy, by Ruth White

1996

The Midwife's Apprentice, by Karen Cushman

Honor Books:

• What Jamie Saw, by Carolyn Coman
• The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963, by Christopher Paul Curtis
• Yolonda's Genius, by Carol Fenner
• The Great Fire, by Jim Murphy

1995

Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech

Honor Books:

• Catherine, Called Birdy, by Karen Cushman
• The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, by Nancy Farmer

1994

The Giver, by Lois Lowry

Honor Books:

• Crazy Lady! by Jane Leslie Conly
• Dragon's Gate, by Laurence Yep
• Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery, by Russell Freedman

1993

Missing May, by Cynthia Rylant

Honor Books:

• What Hearts, by Bruce Brooks
• The Dark-thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural, by Patricia C. McKissack
• Somewhere in the Darkness, by Walter Dean Myers

1992

Shiloh, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Honor Books:

• Nothing But the Truth: A Documentary Novel, by Avi
• The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane, by Russell Freedman

1991

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

Honor Book:

• The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, by Avi

1990

Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry

Honor Books:

• Afternoon of the Elves, by Janet Taylor Lisle
• Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind, by Suzanne Fisher Staples
• The Winter Room, by Gary Paulsen

1989

Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, by Paul Fleischman

Honor Books:

• In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World, by Virginia Hamilton
• Scorpions, by Walter Myers

1988

Lincoln: A Photobiography, by Russell Freedman

Honor Books:

• After the Rain by Norma Fox Mazer
• Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen

1987

The Whipping Boy, by Sid Fleischman

Honor Books:

• A Fine White Dust, by Cynthia Rylant
• On My Honor, by Marion Dane Bauer
• Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens, by Patricia Lauber

1986

Sarah, Plain and Tall, by Patricia MacLachlan

Honor Books:

• Commodore Perry in the Land of Shogun, by Rhonda Blumberg
• Dogsong, by Gary Paulsen

1985

The Hero and the Crown, by Robin McKinley

Honor Books:

• Like Jake and Me, by Mavis Jukes
• The Moves Make the Man, by Bruce Brooks
• One-Eyed Cat, by Paula Fox

1984

Dear Mr. Henshaw, by Beverly Cleary

Honor Books:

• The Sign of the Beaver, by Elizabeth George Speare
• A Solitary Blue, by Cynthia Voigt
• Sugaring Time, by Kathryn Lasky
• The Wish Giver: Three Tales of Coven Tree, by Bill Brittain

1983

Dicey's Song, by Cynthia Voigt

Honor Books:

• The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley
• Doctor DeSoto, by William Steig
• Graven Images, by Paul Fleischman
• Homesick: My Own Story, by Jean Fritz
• Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush, by Virginia Hamilton

1982

A Visit To William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers, by Nancy Willard

Honor Books:

• Ramona Quimby, Age 8, by Beverly Cleary
• Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944, by Aranka Siegal

1981

Jacob Have I Loved, by Katherine Paterson

Honor Books:

• The Fledgling, by Jane Langton
• A Ring of Endless Light, by Madeline L'Engle

1980

A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32, by Joan Blos

Honor Book:

• The Road from Home: The Story of an Armenian Girl, by David Kherdian

1979

The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin

Honor Book:

• The Great Gilly Hopkins, by Katherine Paterson

1978

Bridge To Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson

Honor Books:

• Ramona and Her Father, by Beverly Cleary
• Anpao: An American Indian Odyssey, by Jamake Highwater

1977

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor

Honor Books:

• Abel's Island, by William Steig
• A String in the Harp, by Nancy Bond

1976

The Grey King by Susan Cooper

Honor Books:

• The Hundred Penny Box by Sharon Bell Mathis
• Dragonwings by Laurence Yep

1975

M.C. Higgins, the Great, by Virginia Hamilton

Honor Books:

• Figgs & Phantoms, by Ellen Raskin
• My Brother Sam Is Dead, by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
• The Perilous Gard, by Elizabeth Marie Pope
• Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe, by Bette Green

1974

The Slave Dancer, by Paula Fox

Honor Book:

• The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper

1973

Julie of the Wolves, by Jean Craighead George

Honor Books:

• Frog and Toad Together, by Arnold Lobel
• The Upstairs Room, by Johanna Weiss
• The Witches of Worm, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

1972

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert C. O'Brien

Honor Books:

• Incident At Hawk's Hill, by Allan W. Eckert
• The Planet of Junior Brown, by Virginia Hamilton
• The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Annie and the Old One, by Miska Miles
• The Headless Cupid, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

1971

The Summer of the Swans, by Betsy Byars

Honor Books:

• Kneeknock Rise, by Natalie Babbitt
• Enchantress from the Stars, by Sylvia Louise Engdahl
• Sing Down the Moon, by Scott O'Dell

1970

Sounder, by William H. Armstrong

Honor Books:

• Our Eddie, by Sulamith Ish-Kishor
• The Many Ways of Seeing: An Introduction to the Pleasures of Art, by Janet Moore
• Journey Outside, by Mary Q. Steele

1969

The High King, by Lloyd Alexander

Honor Books:

• To Be a Slave, by Julius Lester
• When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories, by Isaac Bashevis Singer

1968

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E. L. Konigsburg

Honor Books:

• Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth, by E. L. Konigsburg
• The Black Pearl, by Scott O'Dell
• The Fearsome Inn, by Isaac Bashevis Singer
• The Egypt Game, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

1967

Up a Road Slowly, by Irene Hunt

Honor Books:

• The King's Fifth, by Scott O'Dell
• Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories, by Isaac Bashevis Singer
• The Jazz Man, by Mary H. Weik

1966

I, Juan de Pareja, by Elizabeth Borton de Treviño

Honor Books:

• The Black Cauldron, by Lloyd Alexander
• The Animal Family, by Randall Jarrell
• The Noonday Friends, by Mary Stolz

1965

Shadow of A Bull, by Maia Wojciechowska

Honor Book:

• Across Five Aprils, by Irene Hunt

1964

It's Like This, Cat, by Emily Cheney Neville

Honor Books:

• Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era, by Sterling North
• The Loner, by Ester Weir

1963

A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle

Honor Books:

• Thistle and Thyme: Tales and Legends from Scotland, by Sorche Nic Leodhas
• Men of Athens, by Olivia Coolidge

1962

The Bronze Bow, by Elizabeth George Speare

Honor Books:

• Frontier Living, by Edwin Tunis
• The Golden Goblet, by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
• Belling the Tiger, by Mary Stolz

1961

Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O'Dell

Honor Books:

• America Moves Forward: A History for Peter, by Gerald W. Johnson
• Old Ramon, by Jack Schaefer
• The Cricket in Times Square, by George Selden

1960

Onion John, by Joseph Krumgold

Honor Books:

• My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George
• America Is Born: A History for Peter, by Gerald W. Johnson
• The Gammage Cup, by Carol Kendall

1959

The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare

Honor Books:

• The Family Under the Bridge, by Natalie Savage Carlson
• Along Came a Dog, by Meindert DeJong
• Chúcaro: Wild Pony of the Pampa, by Francis Kalnay
• The Perilous Road, by William O. Steele

1958

Rifles for Watie, by Harold V. Keith

Honor Books:

• The Horsecatcher, by Mari Sandoz
• Gone-Away Lake, by Elizabeth Enright
• The Great Wheel, by Robert Lawson
• Tom Paine, Freedom's Apostle, by Leo Gurko

1957

Miracles on Maple Hill, by Virginia Sorensen

Honor Books:

• Old Yeller, by Fred Gipson
• The House of Sixty Fathers, by Meindert DeJong
• Mr. Justice Holmes, by Clara Ingram Judson
• The Corn Grows Ripe, by Dorothy Rhoads
• Black Fox of Lorne, by Marguerite de Angeli

1956

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, by Jean Lee Latham

Honor Books:

• The Secret River, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
• The Golden Name Day, by Jennie Linquist
• Men, Microscopes, and Living Things, by Katherine Shippen

1955

The Wheel on the School, by Meindert DeJong

Honor Books:

• The Courage of Sarah Noble, by Alice Dalgliesh
• Banner in the Sky, by James Ullman

1954

... And Now Miguel, by Joseph Krumgold

Honor Books:

• All Alone, by Claire Hutchet Bishop
• Shadrach, by Meindert DeJong
• Hurry Home, Candy, by Meindert DeJong
• Theodore Roosevelt, Fighting Patriot, by Clara Ingram Judson
• Magic Maize, by Mary and Conrad Buff

1953

Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark

Honor Books:

• Charlotte's Web, by E. B. White
• Moccasin Trail, by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
• Red Sails to Capri, by Ann Weil
• The Bears on Hemlock Mountain, by Alice Dalgliesh
• Birthdays of Freedom, Volume 1, by Genevieve Foster

1952

Ginger Pye, by Eleanor Estes

Honor Books:

• Americans Before Columbus, by Elizabeth Baity
• Minn of the Mississippi, by Holling C. Holling
• The Defender, by Nicholas Kalashnikoff
• The Light At Tern Rock, by Julia Sauer
• The Apple and the Arrow, by Mary and Conrad Buff

1951

Amos Fortune, Free Man, by Elizabeth Yates

Honor Books:

• Better Known As Johnny Appleseed, by Mabel Leigh Hunt
• Gandhi, Fighter Without A Sword, by Jeanette Eaton
• Abraham Lincoln, Friend of the People, by Clara Ingram Judson
• The Story of Appleby Capple, by Anne Parrish

1950

The Door in the Wall, by Marguerite de Angeli

Honor Books:

• Tree of Freedom, by Rebecca Caudill
• The Blue Cat of Castle Town, by Catherine Coblentz
• Kildee House, by Rutherford Montgomery
• George Washington, by Genevieve Foster
• Song of the Pines: A Story of Norwegian Lumbering in Wisconsin, by Walter and Marion Havighurst

1949

King of the Wind, by Marguerite Henry

Honor Books:

• Seabird, by Holling C. Holling
• Daughter of the Mountains, by Louise Rankin
• My Father's Dragon, by Ruth S. Gannett
• Story of the Negro, by Arna Bontemps

1948

The Twenty-One Balloons, by William Pène du Bois

Honor Books:

• Pancakes-Paris, by Claire Hutchet Bishop
• Li Lun, Lad of Courage, by Carolyn Treffinger
• The Quaint and Curious Quest of Johnny Longfoot, by Catherine Besterman
• The Cow-Tail Switch, and Other West African Stories, by Harold Courlander
• Misty of Chincoteague, by Marguerite Henry

1947

Miss Hickory, by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey

Honor Books:

• Wonderful Year, by Nancy Barnes
• Big Tree, by Mary and Conrad Buff
• The Heavenly Tenants, by William Maxwell
• The Avion My Uncle Flew, by Cyrus Fisher
• The Hidden Treasure of Glaston, by Eleanore Jewett

1946

Strawberry Girl, by Lois Lenski

Honor Books:

• Justin Morgan Had A Horse, by Marguerite Henry
• The Moved-Outers, by Florence Crannell Means
• Bhimsa, the Dancing Bear, by Christine Weston
• New Found World, by Katherine Shippen

1945

Rabbit Hill, by Robert Lawson

Honor Books:

• The Hundred Dresses, by Eleanor Estes
• The Silver Pencil, by Alice Dalgliesh
• Abraham Lincoln's World, by Genevieve Foster
• Lone Journey: The Life of Roger Williams, by Jeanette Eaton

1944

Johnny Tremain, by Esther Forbes

Honor Books:

• These Happy Golden Years, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Fog Magic, by Julia Sauer
• Rufus M. by Eleanor Estes
• Mountain Born, by Elizabeth Yeats

1943

Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Elizabeth Gray Vining)

Honor Books:

• The Middle Moffat, by Eleanor Estes
• Have You Seen Tom Thumb? by Mabel Leigh Hunt

1942

The Matchlock Gun, by Walter D. Edmonds

Honor Books:

• Little Town On the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• George Washington's World, by Genevieve Foster
• Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison, by Lois Lenski
• Down Ryton Water, by Eva Roe Gaggin

1941

Call it Courage, by Armstrong Sperry

Honor Books:

• Blue Willow, by Doris Gates
• Young Mac of Fort Vancouver, by Mary Jane Carr
• The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Nansen, by Anna Gertrude Hall

1940

Daniel Boone, by James Daugherty

Honor Books:

• The Singing Tree, by Kate Seredy
• Runner of the Mountain Tops: The Life of Louis Agassiz, by Mabel Robinson
• By the Shores of Silver Lake, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Boy With A Pack, by Stephen W. Meader

1939

Thimble Summer, by Elizabeth Enright

Honor Books:

• Nino, by Valenti Angelo
• Mr. Popper's Penguins, by Richard and Florence Atwater
• Hello the Boat! by Phyllis Crawford
• Leader By Destiny: George Washington, Man and Patriot, by Jeanette Eaton
• Penn, by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Elizabeth Gray Vining)

1938

The White Stag, by Kate Seredy

Honor Books:

• Pecos Bill, by James Cloyd Bowman
• Bright Island, by Mabel Robinson
• On the Banks of Plum Creek, by Laura Ingalls Wilder

1937

Roller Skates, by Ruth Sawyer

Honor Books:

• Phebe Fairchild: Her Book, by Lois Lenski
• Whistlers' Van, by Idwal Jones
• The Golden Basket, by Ludwig Bemelmans
• Winterbound, by Margery Williams Bianco
• The Codfish Musket, by Agnes Hewes
• Audubon, by Constance Rourke

1936

Caddie Woodlawn, by Carol Ryrie Brink

Honor Books:

• Honk, the Moose, by Phil Stong
• The Good Master, by Kate Seredy
• Young Walter Scott, by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Elizabeth Gray Vining)
• All Sail Set: A Romance of the Flying Cloud, by Armstrong Sperry

1935

Dobry, by Monica Shannon

Honor Books:

• The Pageant of Chinese History, by Elizabeth Seeger
• Davy Crockett, by Constance Rourke
• A Day on Skates: The Story of a Dutch Picnic, by Hilda Von Stockum

1934

Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women, by Cornelia Meigs

Honor Books:

• The Forgotten Daughter, by Caroline Snedeker
• Swords of Steel: The Story of a Gettysburg Boy, by Elsie Singmaster
• The ABC Bunny, by Wanda Gág
• The Winged Girl of Knossos, by Erick Berry
• New Land, by Sarah Schmidt
• Big Tree of Bunlahy: Stories of My Own Countryside, by Padraic Colum
• Glory of the Seas, by Agnes Hewes
• The Apprentice of Florence, by Ann Kyle

1933

Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze, by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis

Honor Books:

• Swift Rivers, by Cornelia Meigs
• The Railroad to Freedom: A Story of the Civil War, by Hildegarde Swift
• Children of the Soil: A Story of Scandinavia, by Nora Burglon

1932

Waterless Mountain, by Laura Adams Armer

Honor Books:

• The Fairy Circus, by Dorothy P. Lathrop
• Calico Bush, by Rachel Field
• Boy of the South Seas, by Eunice Tietjens
• Out of the Flame, by Eloise Lownsbery
• Jane's Island, by Marjorie Allee
• The Truce of the Wolf and Other Tales of Old Italy, by Mary Gould Davis

1931

The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth

Honor Books:

• Floating Island, by Anne Parrish
• The Dark Star of Itza: The Story of A Pagan Princess, by Alida Malkus
• Queer Person, by Ralph Hubbard
• Mountains Are Free, by Julia Davis (Julia Davis Adams)
• Spice and the Devil's Cave, by Agnes Hewes
• Meggy MacIntosh, by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Elizabeth Gray Vining)
• Garram the Hunter: A Boy of the Hill Tribes, by Herbert Best
• Ood-le-uk the Wanderer, by Alice Lide and Margaret Johansen

1930

Hitty, Her First Hundred Years, by Rachel Field

Honor Books:

• A Daughter of the Seine: The Life of Madame Roland, by Jeanette Eaton
• Pran of Albania, by Elizabeth Miller
• The Jumping-off Place, by Marian Hurd McNeely
• The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales: Episodes from the Fionn Saga, by Ella Young
• Vaino, a Boy of New Finland, by Julia Davis (Julia Davis Adams)
• Little Blacknose: The Story of a Pioneer, by Hildegarde Hoyt Swift

1929

The Trumpeter of Krakow: A Tale of the Fifteenth Century, by Eric P. Kelly

Honor Books:

• The Pigtail of Ah Lee Ben Loo, with Seventeen Other Laughable Tales & 200 Comical Silhouettes, by John Bennett
• Millions of Cats, by Wanda Gág
• The Boy Who Was, by Grace Hallock
• Clearing Weather, by Cornelia Meigs
• The Runaway Papoose, by Grace Purdie Moon
• Tod, of the Fens, by Elinor Whitney

1928

Gay-Neck, the Story of a Pigeon, by Dhan Gopal Mukerji

Honor Books:

• The Wonder Smith and His Son: A Tale from the Golden Childhood of the World, by Ella Young
• Downright Dencey, by Caroline Snedeker

1927

Smoky, the Cow Horse, by Will James

Honor Books:

• No Record

1926

Shen of the Sea, by Arthur Bowie Chrisman

Honor Book:

• The Voyagers: Being Legends and Romances of Atlantic Discovery, by Padraic Colum

1925

Tales from Silver Lands, by Charles Finger

Honor Books:

• Nicholas: A Manhattan Christmas Story, by Annie Carroll Moore
• The Dream Coach, by Anne Parrish

1924

The Dark Frigate, by Charles Boardman Hawes

Honor Books:

• No Record

1923

The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, by Hugh Lofting

Honor Books:

• No Record

1922

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik Willem van Loon

Honor Books:

• The Great Quest: A Romance of 1826, by Charles Boardman Hawes
• Cedric, the Forester, by Bernard Marshall
• The Old Tobacco Shop: A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of Adventure, by William Bowen
• The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles, by Padraic Colum
• The Windy Hill, by Cornelia Meigs