Newbery Medal Winners

Step back to an English village in 1255, where life plays out in dramatic vignettes illuminating 22 unforgettable characters. 

Lucky, age 10, doesn't expect running away to be so complicated.  A large cast of magnanimous surprises await her when she plans to hide from her guardian in the Mojave Desert.

While wishing for something good to happen to her, Debbie's story criss crosses with those of her friends.

Two sisters lie on their backs, watching the stars and repeating the Japanese word for "glittering" - "kira-kira."  

The subtitle tells it all: being the story of a mouse, a princess, some soup, and a spool of thread.

2003: Crispin by Avi
            J AVI

His mother dead, "Asta's son" is declared a wolf's head.  Can he find out who he really is, and stay alive?

2002: A Single Shard by Linda Park
           J PAR

Tree-ear, a 12th century Korean orphan who lives under a bridge becomes fascinated with pots from the local potters.

2001: A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck
          J PEC

Mary Alice is sent to live with her feisty grandmother while her parents' look for jobs and a place to live during the depression era.

2000: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
             J CUR

10-year-old Bud, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of his father- the renowned bandleader Herman E. Calloway.

1999: Holes by Louis Sacher
               J SAC

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. Now he has been sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys spend all day, every day, digging holes:  five feet wide and five feet deep.

1998: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
                J HES

The Oklahoma dust bowl years and Depression as seen through the eyes of 15-year-old Billie-Jo.

1997: The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg
                 J KON

Four misfit students are chosen by their teacher, to represent the school in the Academic Bowl.

Brat has no home, no future, until she is apprenticed to Jane, the midwife.

Thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her missing mother's route.

Jona's world is perfect, no fear, no pain, no choices.

Can Summer, her friend Cletus, and Uncle Ob find some way to reach Aunt May beyond the grave?

Marty tries to hide Shiloh from his family and the dog's real owner, a mean-spirited man known to mistreat his dogs.

He was Jeffrey Lionel Magee, but when his parents died, so did his name. And Maniac Magee became a legend.

Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.

A collection of poems written to be read aloud by two voices, all describing insects.

A description of the boyhood, marriage and young professional life of Abraham Lincoln, including his presidential years.

A bratty prince and his whipping boy inadvertently change places after becoming involved with dangerous outlaws.

When their father invites a mail-order bride to come live with them in their prairie home, Caleb and Anna hope she will stay.

Aerin, wins the birthright due her as the daughter of the Damarian king and a witchwoman of the mysterious, demon-haunted North.

When Leigh Botts asks Mr. Henshaw to write to him personally, he gets more than he bargained for.

Momma abandoned them.  Dicey, her brothers and sister spend the summer on a long difficult journey to find a home with the grandmother they'd never met before.

This delightful collection of poetry for children brings life to Blake's imaginary inn and its unusual guests.

Feeling deprived all her life of friends, mother, and even her name by her twin sister, Louise finally begins to find her identity.

Written in diary form, 19th century New Englander, Catherine Cabot Hill, tells of one pivotal year of her life.

The death of an eccentric millionaire brings together heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before claiming their inheritance.

Friendship between Jess and Leslie grows as they meet in Terabithia, their secret place, and ends with a tragic death.

Cassie discovers why owning land is so crucial to the Logan family, even as she learns to draw strength from her own sense of dignity and self-respect.

Will is the last-born of the Old Ones.  It is his task to wake the six to prepare for the last battle between the dark and the Light.

As a slag heap creeps closer to his house, 15-year-old M. C. is torn between trying to get his family away and fighting for their home they love.

Kidnapped by the crew of an Africa-bound slaver, a 13-year-old boy discovers his job it to play music to exercise the human cargo.

Julie runs away from her village and is accepted by a pack of Arctic wolves.  With their help, she struggles to survive.

Mrs. Frisby, the mouse, must move immediately but her son Timmy is sick.  She turns to the super intelligent rats of NIMH for help.

The longest day in Sara's life, the summer day her loved, mentally retarded brother is lost, the day she discovers compassion is a friend.

Night after night, the sharecropper and his coon dog, Sounder, return home empty-handed. Then one morning, a ham is cooking in the kitchen.  That night, an angry sheriff comes, and the boy's life will never be the same.

Taran, in Prydain must battle a diabolical fiend or face the destruction of his beloved home.

When Claudia decided to run away, she carefully planned.  She would live in comfort - at the Museum of Art.

Julie grows from a naïve yet perceptive 7-year-old to a smart and wise-beyond-her-years 17-year-old.   A touching coming-of-age story.

Based on the true story of the slave, Juan de Pareja, who was willed to Velazquez and whose relationship with the great Spanish painter evolved into one of friendship and equality.

Manolo doesn't want to be a bullfighter like his famous father.  He is terrified of bulls.

Dave Mitchell and his father disagree on almost everything- music, hair, even pets a dog or cat.  Dave's father prefers a dog.  So Dave gets Cat.

Meg's father has been experimenting with time travel, but he's caught in a wrinkle in time.  Now Meg, Charles and Calvin, have to rescue him.

A young boy seeking revenge against the Romans for killing his parents, meets Jesus.

Left alone on an isolated island, a young Indian girl spends eighteen years, surviving and finding happiness in her solitary life.

The story of a friendship between a 12-year-old boy and an immigrant handyman.

Orphaned Kit Tyler rebels against the narrow-minded ways of Puritan Connecticut.  She befriends a lonely old woman.  Then Kit herself is accused of witchcraft!

Jefferson Davis Bussey is 16 when the Civil War breaks out.  H can't wait to leave his Kansas farm and join the fighting.

Marly and her family have many adventures when they move to a farmhouse on Maple Hill.

A story of the mathematician and astronomer who realized his childhood dream to become a ship's captain.

When the storks no longer come to the fishing village of Shora, Lina devised a plan to bring them back.

Every summer the men of the Chavez family go on a long, difficult sheep drive to the mountains.  All the men, that is, except Miguel.

Cusi, is an Incan boy living high in the mountains of Peru with an old llama herder.  Cusi is of royal blood, the 'chosen one.'

Meet Ginger Pye, the smartest dog you'll ever know.  Jerry Pye and his sister, Rachel, feel pretty smart themselves for buying Ginger.

The son of an African king, Amos Fortune was captured by slave traders, brought to America and sold at auction.

While plague and war rage through London, Robin travels to Lindsey Castle to become a knight, and he alone can save it.

The story of Sham, the renowned Godolphin Arabian horse, whose blood flows through the veins of almost every superior Thoroughbred.

Professor William Sherman leaves San Francisco to fly around the world in a hot-air balloon.  But he doesn't know what adventures he will find...

How can Miss hickory survive a harsh New Hampshire winter all alone after her owner moved to Boston?  After all, she is just an apple-wood twig doll.

Birdie can hardly wait to start picking the strawberries.  Her family just moved to the Florida backwoods and hasn't even begun planting.

New folks will live in the Big House.  The animals of Rabbit Hill wonder if they will plant a garden and thus be good providers.

After injuring his hand, a Boston silversmith's apprentice becomes a messenger for the Sons of Liberty during the American Revolution.

The adventures of 11-year-old Adam as he travels roads of 13th century England searching for his father, a minstrel, and his stolen red spaniel, Nick.

Edward is determined to protect his home and family with the ancient, and much to heavy, Spanish gun his father gave him.

Though the son of the Great Chief of Hikueru, Maftu feared and avoided the sea, until everyone branded him a coward.

A portrait of the famous American trailblazer.  And an authentic picture of pioneer life during the great westward movement.

During her thimble summer Garnet Linden thinks all the good things are related to her finding a silver thimble in the dried-up riverbed.

The legendary story of the Huns and Magyars' long migration from Asia to Europe where they hope to find a permanent home.

Miss Peters understood that a girl of ten wanted to roller-skate to school, be a tomboy and a lady at the same time.

Caddie Woodlawn would rather hunt than sew, plow than bake, and she's friendly with the Indians, who scare most of her neighbors.

A Bulgarian peasant boy must convince his mother that he is destined to be a sculptor, not a farmer.

Biography of Louisa May Alcott, from her childhood in Pennsylvania and Boston to her success as a writer of classic like Little Women.

Young Fu is an apprentice to Tang, the coppersmith, during the 1920's in the Chinese city of Chungking.

Legend and fact, poetry and prose of the life among the Navajo Indians are skillfully woven in this book.

Of all the animals present at the death of Buddha, the artist at first left off the cat.  But when he added a cat, a miracle happened.

Phoebe is proud of her beautiful doll and brings Hitty everywhere.  Hitty finds herself involved in wonderful adventures.

Joseph was bound by ancient oath to guard the great Tarnov crystal.  Can he protect it and the city from plundering Tartars?

Gay Neck, a carrier pigeon raised in India, is used by a Bengal Regiment in France during World War I.

Clint, the bronc peeler tells you all about his favorite pony, Smoky, who lived a full horse's life in the early 1900's

A collection of Chinese folk tales, strong in humor and rich in Chinese wisdom.

Nineteen tales from the Indians of South America, keeping the flavor of the land from which they sprung.

Philip Marsham goes to sea, but his ship is raided by pirates. He is forced to become a member of their crew.

Bark, meow, whinny, or oink if you can talk to animals, just like Dr. Dolittle.

Anyone who can chronicle world history from 500,000 B.C. to the present times deserves a medal.  The warm, personable tone of Hendrik Wellem van Loon's writings lends itself to true learning.