Honors the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children
2023 Amina Luqman-Dawson. Freewater.
After fleeing the plantation where they were enslaved, siblings Ada and Homer discover the secret community of Freewater, and work with freeborn Sanzi to protect their new home from the encroaching dangers of the outside world. J-HF LUQ
2022 Donna Barba Higuera. The Last Cuentista.
Petra Peäna wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few have been chosen to journey to a new planet. Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. J-SF HIG 
2021 Tae Keller. When You Trap a Tiger.
When Lily, her sister Sam, and their mother move in with her sick grandmother, Lily traps a tiger and makes a deal with him to heal Halmoni. J-FAN KEL
2020 Jerry Craft. New Kid.
Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics, where Jordan is one of the few kids of color in his entire grade. Can Jordan learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighborhood friends and staying true to himself? J-GRAPHIC CRA
2019 Meg Medina. Merci Suárez Changes Gears.
Eleven-year-old Cuban American Merci Suárez balances the demands of her multi-generational family with the challenges of being a scholarship student at a private school in Florida. J MED
2018 Erin Entrada Kelly. Hello, Universe.
Lives of four misfits are intertwined when a bully's prank lands shy Virgil at the bottom of a well and Valencia, Kaori, and Gen band together in an epic quest to find and rescue him. J KEL
2017 Kelly Regan Barnill. The Girl Who Drank the Moon.
Once a year in the Protectorate the youngest baby is taken by the Elders and left in the forest to die, thus appeasing the witch who threatens to destroy the village if not obeyed. She rescues the infants, but on one occasion, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight along with starlight, filling her with glowing magic. YA-FANTASY BARNH
2016 Matt de la Peña. Last Stop on Market Street.
A young boy rides the bus across town with his grandmother and learns to appreciate the beauty in everyday things. E DEL
2015 Kwame Alexander. The Crossover.
Fourteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health. J ALE
2014 Kate DiCamillo. Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures.
In this homage to comic books, natural-born cynic Flora Belle Buckman and Ulysses, a flying, poetry-writing squirrel, join forces to overcome Ulysses’ arch-nemesis, encountering a cast of quirky characters. J-FAN DIC
2013 Katherine Applegate. The One and Only Ivan.
Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all. Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he's seen and about his friends, Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. J APP
2012 Jack Gantos. Dead End in Norvelt.
In the historic town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, typewriting, and countless bloody noses. J-HF GAN
2011 Clare Vanderpool. Moon Over Manifest.
Twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker is the daughter of a drifter who, in the summer of 1936, sends her to stay with an old friend in Manifest, Kansas, where he grew up, and where she hopes to find out some things about his past. J-HF VAN
2010 Rebecca Stead. When You Reach Me.
As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1980s television game show, "The $20,000 Pyramid," a twelve-year-old New York City girl tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from an anonymous source that seems to defy the laws of time and space. J STE
2009 Neil Gaiman. The Graveyard Book.
Nobody Owens is a normal boy, except that he has been raised by ghosts and other denizens of the graveyard. J-FAN GAI, YA-FANTASY GAI
2008 Laura Amy Schlitz. Good Masters, Sweet Ladies: Voices from a Medeival Village.
A collection of short one-person plays featuring characters, between ten and fifteen years old, who live in or near a thirteenth-century English manor. J 812.6 SCH
2007 Susan Patron. The Higher Power of Lucky.
Fearing that her legal guardian plans to abandon her to return to France, ten-year-old aspiring scientist Lucky Trimble determines to run away while also continuing to seek the Higher Power that will bring stability to her life. J PAT
2006 Lynn Rae Perkins. Criss Cross.
Teenagers in a small town in the 1960s experience new thoughts and feelings, question their identities, connect, and disconnect as they search for the meaning of life and love. J PER
2005 Cynthia Kadohata. Kira-Kira.
Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair when one sister becomes terminally ill. J-HF KAD
2004 Kate DiCamillo. The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, A Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread.
The adventures of Desperaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin. J-FAN DIC
2003 Avi. Crispin: The Cross of Lead.
Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret. J-HF AVI
2002 Linda Sue Park. A Single Shard.
Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives under a bridge in a potters' village, and longs to learn how to throw the delicate celadon ceramics himself. J-HF PAR
2001 Richard Peck. A Year Down Yonder.
In 1937, during the Depression, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice is sent to live with her feisty, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois and comes to a better understanding of this fearsome woman. J-HF PEC, J-PBK PEC
2000 Christopher Paul Curtis. Bud, Not Buddy.
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids. J-HF CUR
1999 Louis Sachar. Holes.
As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself. J SAC, J-PBK SAC, YA-PBK SAC
1998 Karen Hesse. Out of the Dust.
In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.J-HF HES, YA-PBK HES
1997 E.L. Konigsburg. The View from Saturday.
Four students, with their own individual stories, develop a special bond and attract the attention of their teacher, a paraplegic, who chooses them to represent their sixth-grade class in the Academic Bowl competition. J KON
1996 Karen Cushman. The Midwife's Apprentice.
In medieval England, a nameless, homeless girl is taken in by a sharp-tempered midwife, and in spite of obstacles and hardship, eventually gains the three things she most wants: a full belly, a contented heart, and a place in this world. YA-HISTORICAL CUS
1995 Sharon Creech. Walk Two Moons.
After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left. J CRE, YA-CRE
1994 Lois Lowry. The Giver.
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.J-SF LOW, YA-PBK L
1993 Cynthia Rylant. Missing May.
After the death of the beloved aunt who has raised her, twelve-year-old Summer and her uncle Ob leave their West Virginia trailer in search of the strength to go on living. J RYL, YA RYL
1992 Phyllis R. Naylor. Shiloh.
When he finds a lost beagle in the hills behind his West Virginia home, Marty tries to hide it from his family and the dog's real owner, a mean-spirited man known to shoot deer out of season and to mistreat his dogs. J NAY, J-PBK NAY
1991 Jerry Spinelli. Maniac Magee.
After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee's life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic and other feats which awe his contemporaries. J-PBK SPI, YA-PBK SPI
1990 Lois Lowry. Number the Stars.
In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis. J-HF LOW, J-PBK LOW
1989 Paul Fleischman. Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices.
A collection of poems describing the characteristics and activities of a variety of insects. J 811 FLE
1988 Russell Freedman. Lincoln: A Photobiography.
Photographs and text trace the life of the Civil War President. JB LINCOLN
1987 Sid Fleischman. The Whipping Boy.
A bratty prince and his whipping boy have many adventures when they inadvertently trade places after becoming involved with dangerous outlaws. J FLE, J-PBK FLE
1986 Patricia MacLachlan. Sarah, Plain and Tall.
When their father invites a mail-order bride to come live with them in their prairie home, Caleb and Anna are captivated by their new mother and hope that she will stay.J-HF MAC
1985 Robin McKinley. The Hero and the Crown.
Aerin, with the guidance of the wizard Luthe and the help of the blue sword, wins the birthright due her as the daughter of the Damarian king and a witchwoman of the mysterious, demon-haunted North. J-FAN MCK
1984 Beverly Cleary. Dear Mr. Henshaw.
In his letters to his favorite author, ten-year-old Leigh reveals his problems in coping with his parents' divorce, being the new boy in school, and generally finding his own place in the world. J CLE
1983 Cynthia Voigt. Dicey's Song.
Now that the four abandoned Tillerman children are settled in with their grandmother, Dicey finds that their new beginnings require love, trust, humor, and courage. YA-PBK VOI
1982 Nancy Willard. A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent & Experienced Travelers.
A collection of poems describing the curious menagerie of guests who arrive at William Blake's inn. J 811 WIL
1981 Katherine Paterson. Jacob Have I Loved.
Feeling deprived all her life of schooling, friends, mother, and even her name by her twin sister, Louise finally begins to find her identity. J-HF PAT
1980 Joan W. Blos. A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32.
The journal of a 14-year-old girl, kept the last year she lived on the family farm, records daily events in her small New Hampshire town, her father's remarriage, and the death of her best friend. J-HF BLO
1979 Ellen Raskin. The Westing Game.
The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim their inheritance. J-M RAS, J-PBK RAS
1978 Katherine Paterson. Bridge to Terabithia.
The life of a ten-year-old boy in rural Virginia expands when he becomes friends with a newcomer who subsequently meets an untimely death trying to reach their hideaway, Terabithia, during a storm.J PAT, J-BPK PAT
1977 Mildred D. Taylor. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
A black family living in the South during the 1930's is faced with prejudice and discrimination which their children do not understand. J-HF TAY
1976 Susan Cooper. The Grey King.
Will Stanton, visiting in Wales, is swept into a desperate quest to find the golden harp and to awaken the ancient Sleepers.J-FAN COO
1975 Virginia Hamilton. M. C. Higgins the Great.
As a slag heap, the result of strip mining, creeps closer to his house in the Ohio hills, M.C. is torn between trying to get his family away and fighting for the home they love. J-PBK HAM
1974 Paula Fox. The Slave Dancer.
Kidnapped by the crew of an Africa-bound ship, a thirteen-year-old boy discovers to his horror that he is on a slaver and his job is to play music for the exercise periods of the human cargo.J-HF FOX, J-PBK FOX
1973 Jean Craighead George. Julie of the Wolves.
While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack J-ADV GEO
1972 Robert C. O'Brien. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.
A field mouse calls on her friends, the laboratory rats, to help her move her home and her younger son, which is ill, from the path of the farmer's tractor.J OBR, J-PBK OBR
1971 Betsy Byars. Summer of the Swans.
A teenage girl gains new insight into herself and her family when her mentally handicapped brother gets lost.J BYA, J-PBK BYA
1970 William H. Armstrong. Sounder.
A young Negro boy learns the pain of humiliation and anger when his father is given an unjust jail sentence and his dog is shot by white men. Learning to read and to discover that things do not die but become part of other things brings the youngster new hope.J ARM, J-PBK ARM
1969 Lloyd Alexander. The High King.
In this fifth and final chronicle of Prydain the forces of good and evil meet in ultimate confrontation.J-FAN ALE, J-PBK ALE
1968 E. L. Konigsburg. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
Having run away with her younger brother to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, twelve-year-old Claudia strives to keep things in order in their new home and to become a changed person and a heroine to herself. J KON, J-PBK KON
1967 Irene Hunt. Up a Road Slowly.
After her mother's death, Julia goes to live with Aunt Cordelia, a spinster schoolteacher, where she experiences many emotions and changes as she grows from seven to eighteen.J HUN, J-PBK HUN
1966 Elizabeth Borton de Trevino. I, Juan de Pareja.
A fictionalized biography of the Negro slave of the great Spanish painter Velázguez. J-PBK DEP
1965 Maia Wojciechowska. Shadow of a Bull.
Manolo Olivar has to make a decision: to follow in his famous father's shadow and become a bullfighter, or to follow his heart and become a doctor. J WOJ
1964 Emily Neville. It's Like This, Cat.
The story of a fourteen-year-old New York boy and his relationships with a stray tomcat, an eccentric old woman, a troubled older boy, the first girl with whom he has been friends, and his father. J NEV
1963 Madeleine L'Engle. A Wrinkle in Time.
When an atomic physicist disappears on a secret mission, his son, daughter and their friend search for him, going on an interplanetary journey through time and space. J-SF LEN, J-PBK LEN
1962 Elizabeth George Speare. The Bronze Bow.
A young Palestinian, thirsting for revenge against the Romans in the Holy Land, does not accept Jesus' preaching of love. J-HF SPE
1961 Scott O'Dell. Island of the Blue Dolphins.
When her younger brother died in 1800, Karana, an Indian girl, spent eighteen years alone on the Island of San Nicholas, far off the coast of California. J-HF ODE, J-PBK ODE
1960 Joseph Krumgold. Onion John.
His friendship with the town odd-jobs man, Onion John, causes a conflict between Andy and his father. J-PBK KRU
1959 Elizabeth George Speare. The Witch of Blackbird Pond.
In 1687 a young girl from Barbados visits her Puritan relatives in Connecticut and becomes the suspect in a witch hunt. J-HF SPE, J-PBK SPE
1958 Harold Keith. Rifles for Watie.
Jeff Bussy of Linn County, Kansas joins the Union volunteers during the Civil War, and meets Stand Watie who led the Cherokee Indian Nation fearlessly and successfully on savage raids behind the Union lines. J-PBK KEI
1957 Virginia Sorenson. Miracles on Maple Hill.
After her father returns from the war moody and tired, Marly's family decides to move from the city to Maple Hill Farm in the Pennsylvania countryside, where they share many adventures which help restore their spirits and their bond with each other. J-PBK SOR
1956 Jean Lee Latham. Carry On, Mr. Bowditch.
A fictionalized biography of the mathematician and astronomer who realized his childhood desire to become a ship's captain and authored The American Practical Navigator. JB BOWDITCH
1955 Meindert DeJong. The Wheel on the School.
The school children of a small fishing village in Holland search for a wheel to put on the roof of their school so that storks will nest there and bring good luck to the town. J DEJ
1954 Joseph Krumgold. ...And Now Miguel.
Miguel lives with his family on a sheep ranch in New Mexico. More than anything, he longs to go to the Sangre de Christo Mountains with the men of his village. J-PBK KRU
1953 Ann Nolan Clark. Secret of the Andes.
An Indian boy who tends llamas in a hidden valley in Peru learns the traditions and secrets of his Inca ancestors. J-PBK CLA
1952 Eleanor Estes. Ginger Pye.
The disappearance of a new puppy named Ginger and the appearance of a mysterious man in a mustard yellow hat bring excitement into the lives of the Pye children. J EST, J-PBK EST
1951 Elizabeth Yates. Amos Fortune, Free Man.
The life of the eighteenth-century African prince who, after being captured by slave traders, was brought to Massachusetts where he was a slave until he was able to buy his freedom at the age of sixty. J-B FORTUNE
1950 Marguerite de Angeli. The Door in the Wall.
A crippled boy in fourteenth-century England proves his courage and earns recognition from the King. J-HF DEA
1949 Marguerite Henry. King of the Wind.
Follows the adventures of the Arabian stallion brought to England to become one of the founding sires of the Thoroughbred breed and the mute Arab stable boy who tended him with loyalty and devotion all his life. J HEN, J-PBK HEN
1948 William Pène du Bois. The Twenty-One Balloons.
Relates the incredible adventures of Professor William Waterman Sherman who in 1883 sets off in a balloon across the Pacific, survives the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa, and is eventually picked up in the Atlantic. J-ADV DUB
1947 Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. Miss Hickory.
Despite the fact that Miss Hickory was a doll whose body was an apple-wood twig and whose head was hickory nut, she survived the harsh New Hampshire winter in her corn-cob house with the help of her neighbors, Crow, Bull Frog, and Ground Hog. J-PBK BAI
1946 Lois Lenski. Strawberry Girl.
Set in a little-known backwoods region of Florida, Strawberry Girl is the first of the Lenski regional books and the winner of the Newbery award. J LEN, J-PBK LEN
1945 Robert Lawson. Rabbit Hill.
New folks are coming to live in the Big House. The animals of Rabbit Hill wonder if they will plant a garden and thus be good providers. J LAW, J-PBK LEN
1944 Esther Forbes. Johnny Tremain.
After injuring his hand, a silversmith's apprentice in Boston becomes a messenger for the Sons of Liberty in the days before the American Revolution. J-PBK FOR
1943 Elizabeth Janet Gray. Adam of the Road.
The adventures of eleven-year-old Adam as he travels the open roads of thirteenth-century England searching for his missing father, a minstrel, and his stolen red spaniel, Nick. J GRA
1942 Walter Dumaux Edmonds. The Matchlock Gun.
In 1756, during the French and Indian War in upper New York state, ten-year-old Edward is determined to protect his home and family with the ancient, and much too heavy, Spanish gun that his father had given him before leaving home to fight the enemy.J-HF EDM
1941 Armstrong Sperry. Call It Courage.
Based on a Polynesian legend, this is the story of a youth who overcomes his fear of the sea and proves his courage to himself and his tribe. J SPE, J-PBK SPE
1940 James Daugherty. Daniel Boone.
Biography of the famous explorer.
1939 Elizabeth Enright. Thimble Summer.
It looked as though it was going to be a dry and dreary summer on the Wisconsin farm but then Garnet found a silver thimble in a dried-up river bed and the rains came and her pig became a champion. J ENR
1938 Kate Seredy. The White Stag.
Retells the legendary story of the Huns and Magyars' long migration from Asia to Europe where they hope to find a permanent home. J SER
1937 Ruth Sawyer. Roller Skates.
The discoveries and adventures of ten-year-old Lucinda, who spends a wonderful year exploring the New York City of the 1890's. J-PBK SAW
1936 Carol Ryrie Brink. Caddie Woodlawn.
Chronicles the adventures of eleven-year-old Caddie growing up with her six brothers and sisters on the Wisconsin frontier in the mid-nineteenth century. J-HF BRI, J-PBK BRI
1935 Monica Shannon. Dobry.
A Bulgarian peasant boy grew up on the family farm and although he was expected to work on it with his father, Dobry wanted to be a sculptor.
1934 Cornelia Meigs. Invincible Louisa: Story of the Author of "Little Women" .
Includes a chronology of the writer’s life in this biography. J-B ALCOTT
1933 Elizabeth Foreman Lewis. Young Fu of The Upper Yangtze.
In the 1920's a Chinese youth from the country comes to Chungking with his mother where the bustling city offers adventure and his apprenticeship to a coppersmith brings good fortune. J LEW
1932 Laura Adams Armer. Waterless Mountain.
Younger Brother, a Navaho Indian boy, undergoes eight years of training in the ancient religion of his people and the practical knowledge of material existence. J ARM
1931 Elizabeth Coatsworth. The Cat Who Went to Heaven.
Story of a little cat who came to the home of a Japanese artist, and, through humility and devotion, brought him good fortune. J COA, J-PBK COA
1930 Rachel Lyman Field. Hitty, Her First Hundred Years.
The memoirs of a doll named Hitty, who was carved from a piece of white ash in Maine, traveled throughout the developing United States, and ended up, over a hundred years later, in an antique shop in New York City. J-PBK FIE
1929 Eric P. Kelly. Trumpeter of Krakow.
A Polish family in the Middle Ages guards a great secret treasure and a boy's memory of an earlier trumpeter of Krakow makes it possible for him to save his father. J KEL
1928 Dhan Gopal Mukerji. Gay-Neck.
The story of the training of a carrier pigeon and its service during the First World War, revealing the bird's courageous and spirited adventures over the housetops of an Indian village, in the Himalayan Mountains, and on the French battlefield.
1927 Will James. Smoky, the Cowhorse.
The experiences of a mouse-colored horse from his birth in the wild, through his capture by humans and his work in the rodeo and on the range, to his eventual old age. J-PBK JAM
1926 Arthur Bowie Chrisman. Shen of the Sea.
Sixteen original stories reflecting the spirit of Chinese life and thought. J-PBK CHR
1925 Charles Joseph Finger. Tales from Silver Lands.
A collection of folk-tales from the Indians of South America.
1924 Charles Boardman Hawes. The Dark Frigate.
Wherein is told the story of Philip Marsham who lived in the time of King Charles and was bred a sailor but came home to England after many hazards by sea and land and fought for the King at Newbury and lost a great inheritance and departed for Barbados in the same ship, by curious chance, in which he had long before adventured with the pirates. J HAW
1923 Hugh Lofting. The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle.
When his colleague Long Arrow disappears, Dr. Dolittle sets off with his assistant, Tommy Stubbins, his dog, Jip, and Polynesia the parrot on an adventurous voyage over tropical seas to floating Spidermonkey Island. J-PBK LOF
1922 Willem Van Loon Hendrik. The Story of Mankind.
This classic history, first published in 1921 and winner of the first Newbery Medal, was illustrated in pen and ink by the author. This version has incorporated recent events to make it an up-to-date world history. J 909 VAN
Selected by the American Library Association
