Books pages - Newbery Books
The Newbery Medal, named for eighteenth-century British
bookseller John Newbery, is awarded annually by the American Library
Association for the most distinguished American children's book published
the previous year (Association
for Library Service to Children)
Newbery Winners 1985 to date
Stead:
When You Reach Me (2010 Winner)
By Rebecca Stead
2009, 208 pages, $16 list
It is 1979 on the Upper West
Side of New York City, and Miranda, a sixth grader, is telling us, or rather
someone in particular, about the events of the previous few months — “trying to
map out the story you asked me to tell.” How the spare apartment key suddenly
disappeared. How her best friend, Sal, stopped talking to her after being hit
by a strange boy on their way home from school. And how anonymous notes started
appearing, referring to things no one else but she could know about and begging
her to do things as well.
Gaiman: The Graveyard Book (2009 Winner)
By Neil Gaiman
2008,
320 pages, $18 list
In The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman has created a charming allegory of childhood.
Although the book opens with a scary scene--a family is stabbed to death by
"a man named Jack” --the story quickly moves nto
more child-friendly storytelling. The sole survivor of the attack--an
18-month-old baby--escapes his crib and his house, and toddles to a nearby
graveyard. Quickly recognizing that the baby is orphaned, the graveyard's
ghostly residents adopt him, name him Nobody ("Bod"), and allow him to live in their tomb. Taking
inspiration from Kipling’s The Jungle Book, Gaiman describes how the toddler
navigates among the headstones, asking a lot of questions and picking up the
tricks of the living and the dead. In serial-like episodes, the story follows Bod's progress as he grows from baby to teen, learning
life’s lessons amid a cadre of the long-dead, ghouls, witches, intermittent
human interlopers. A pallid, nocturnal guardian named Silas ensures that Bod receives food, books, and anything else he might need
from the human world. Whenever the boy strays from his usual play among the
headstones, he finds new dangers, learns his limitations and strengths, and
acquires the skills he needs to survive within the confines of the graveyard
and in wider world beyond.
Schlitz:
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village (2008 Winner)
By Laura Amy Schlitz
2007, 96 pages, $20 list
Maidens, monks, and millers’ sons -- in these pages, readers
will meet them all. There’s Hugo, the lord’s nephew, forced to prove his manhood
by hunting a wild boar; sharp-tongued Nelly, who supports her family by selling
live eels; and the peasant’s daughter, Mogg, who gets a clever lesson in how to
save a cow from a greedy landlord. There’s also mud-slinging
Patron:
The Higher Power of Lucky (2007 Winner)
By Susan Patron and Matt Phelan
2006, 144 pages, $17 list
Lucky, age ten, can't wait another
day. The meanness gland in her heart and the crevices full of questions in her
brain make running away from Hard Pan,
Perkins:
Criss Cross (2006 Winner)
By Lynne Rae Perkins
2007, 368 pages, $7 list
She wished something would happen.
Something good. To her. Checking her wish for loopholes, she found one. Hoping
it wasn't too late, she thought the word soon. Meanwhile, in another
part of town, he felt as if the world was opening. Life was rearranging itself;
bulging in places, fraying in spots. He felt himself changing, too, but into
what? So much can happen in a summer.
Kadohata:
Kira-Kira (2005 Winner)
By Cynthia Kadohata
2006, 272 pages, $7 list
Glittering. That's how Katie
Takeshima's sister, Lynn, makes everything seem. The sky is kira-kira
because its color is deep but see-through at the same time. The sea is kira-kira
for the same reason. And so are people's eyes. When Katie and her family move
from a Japanese community in
DiCamillo:
The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and
a Spool of Thread (2004 Winner)
By Kate DiCamillo and Timothy Basil
Ering
2006, 272 pages, $8 list
Welcome to the story of Despereaux
Tilling, a mouse who is in love with music, stories, and a princess named Pea.
It is also the story of a rat called Roscuro, who lives in the darkness and
covets a world filled with light. And it is the story of Miggery Sow, a
slow-witted serving girl who harbors a simple, impossible wish. These three
characters are about to embark on a journey that will lead them down into a
horrible dungeon, up into a glittering castle, and, ultimately, into each
other’s lives. What happens then? As Kate DiCamillo would say: Reader, it is
your destiny to find out. From the master storyteller who brought us BECAUSE OF
WINN-DIXIE comes another classic, a fairy tale full of quirky, unforgettable
characters, with twenty-four stunning black-and-white illustrations by Timothy
Basil Ering. This paperback edition pays tribute to the book’s classic design,
featuring a rough front and elegant gold stamping.
Avi:
Crispin: The Cross of Lead (2003 Winner)
By Avi
2004, 320 pages, $7 list
“Asta’s
son” is all he’s ever been called. The lack of name is appropriate, because he
and his mother are but poor peasants in fourteenth-century medieval
Park:
A Single Shard (2002 Winner)
By Linda Sue Park
2003, 192 pages, $7 list
Tree-ear, an orphan, lives under a bridge in Ch’ulp’o, a
potters’ village famed for delicate celadon ware. He has become fascinated with
the potter’s craft; he wants nothing more than to watch master potter Min at
work, and he dreams of making a pot of his own someday. When Min takes Tree-ear
on as his helper, Tree-ear is elated — until he finds obstacles in his path:
the backbreaking labor of digging and hauling clay, Min’s irascible temper, and
his own ignorance. But Tree-ear is determined to prove himself — even if it
means taking a long, solitary journey on foot to present Min’s work in the hope
of a royal commission . . . even if it means arriving at the royal court with
nothing to show but a single celadon shard.
Peck:
A Year Down Yonder (2001 Winner)
By Richard Peck
2002, 144 pages, $7 list
Mary Alice's childhood summers in Grandma
Dowdel's sleepy
Curtis:
Bud, Not Buddy (2000 Winner)
By Christopher Paul Curtis
2004, 272 pages, $7 list
It's 1936, in
1. He has his own suitcase filled with his own important, secret things.
2. He's the author of Bud Caldwell's Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life
and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself.
3. His momma never told him who his father was, but she left a clue: flyers of
Herman E. Calloway and his famous band, the Dusky Devastators of the
Depression!!!!!!
Bud's got an idea that those flyers will lead him to his father. Once he
decides to hit the road and find this mystery man, nothing can stop him--not
hunger, not fear, not vampires, not even Herman E. Calloway himself.
Bud, Not Buddy is full of laugh-out-loud humor and wonderful characters,
hitting the high notes of jazz and sounding the deeper tones of the Great
Depression. Once again Christopher Paul Curtis, author of the award-winning
novel The Watsons Go to
Sachar:
Holes (1999 Winner)
By Louis Sachar
2003, 256 pages, $7 list
Stanley Yelnats tries to dig up the truth in
this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment–and redemption.
Hesse:
Out of the Dust (1998 Winner)
By Karen Hesse
1999, 240 pages, $6 list
A poem cycle that reads as a novel, Out of the Dust
tells the story of a girl named Billie Jo, who struggles to help her family
survive the dust-bowl years of the Depression. Fighting against the elements on
her
Konigsburg:
The View from Saturday (1997 Winner)
By E.L. Konigsburg
1998, 176 pages, $6 list
HOW HAD MRS. OLINSKI CHOSEN her
sixth-grade Academic Bowl team? She had a number of answers. But were any of
them true? How had she really chosen Noah and Nadia and Ethan and Julian? And
why did they make such a good team?
It was a surprise to a lot of people
when Mrs. Olinski's team won the sixth-grade Academic Bowl contest at
Cushman:
The Midwife's Apprentice (1996 Winner)
By Karen Cushman
1996, 128 pages, $6 list
From the author of "Catherine, Called Birdy" comes
another spellbinding novel set in medieval
Creech:
Walk Two Moons (1995 Winner)
By Sharon Creech
2003, 304 pages, $7 list
As Sal entertains her grandparents with Phoebe's
outrageous story, her own story begins to unfold--the story of a thirteen-year-old
girl whose only wish is to be reunited with her missing mother.In her own
award-winning style, Sharon Creech intricately weaves together two tales, one
funny, one bittersweet, to create a heartwarming, compelling, and utterly
moving story of love, loss, and the complexity of human emotion.
Lowry:
The Giver (1994 Winner)
By Lois Lowry
2002, 192 pages, $7 list
In a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness and no
unemployment, and where every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to
be the community's Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders and
an old man known as the Giver, he discovers the disturbing truth about his
utopian world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy. With echoes of
Brave New World, in this 1994 Newbery Medal winner, Lowry examines the
idea that people might freely choose to give up their humanity in order to
create a more stable society. Gradually Jonas learns just how costly this
ordered and pain-free society can be, and boldly decides he cannot pay the
price.
Rylant:
Missing May (1993 Winner)
By Cynthia Rylant
2004, 112 pages, $6 list
When May dies suddenly while gardening, Summer assumes
she'll never see her beloved aunt again. But then Summer's Uncle Ob claims that
May is on her way back—she has sent a sign from the spirit world. So
Naylor:
Shiloh (1992 Winner)
By Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
2000, 144 pages, $7 list
When Marty Preston comes across a
young beagle in the hills behind his home, it's love at first sight -- and also
big trouble. It turns out the dog, which Marty names
Spinelli:
Maniac Magee (1991 Winner)
By Jerry Spinelli
1999, 180 pages, $7 list
Maniac Magee is a folk story about a
boy, a very excitable boy. One that can outrun dogs, hit a home run off the
best pitcher in the neighborhood, tie a knot no one can undo. "Kid's gotta
be a maniac," is what the folks in Two Mills say. It's also the story of
how this boy, Jeffrey Lionel "Maniac" Magee, confronts racism in a
small town, tries to find a home where there is none and attempts to soothe
tensions between rival factions on the tough side of town. Presented as a folk
tale, it's the stuff of storytelling. "The history of a kid," says
Jerry Spinelli, "is one part fact, two parts
legend, and three parts snowball." And for this kid, four parts of fun.
Lowry:
Number the Stars (1990 Winner)
By Lois Lowry
1998, 144 pages, $7 list
The evacuation of Jews from
Nazi-held
Fleischman:
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices (1989
Winner)
By Paul Fleischman
2004, 64 pages, $6 list
Written to be read aloud
by two voices––sometimes alternating, sometimes simultaneous––here is a
collection of irresistible poems that celebrate the insect world, from the
short life of the mayfly to the love song of the book louse. Funny, sad, loud,
and quiet, each of these poems resounds with a booming, boisterous, joyful
noise. In this remarkable volume of poetry for two voices, Paul Fleischman
verbally re–creates the "Booming/boisterious/joyful noise" of
insects. The poems resound with the pulse of the cicada and the drone of the
honeybee. Eric Beddows's vibrant drawings send each insect soaring, spinning,
or creeping off the page in its own unique way.A clear and fascinating guide to
the insect world––from chrysalid butterflies to whirligig beetles–– and an
exultant celebration of life.
Freedman:
Lincoln: A Photobiography (1988 Winner)
By Russell Freedman
1989 (1st edition), 160
pages, $10 list
A description of the boyhood, marriage, and young
professional life of Abraham Lincoln includes his presidential years and also
reflects on the latest scholarly thoughts about our Civil War president. A
Newberry Medal Book.
Fleischman:
The Whipping Boy (1987 Winner)
By Sid Fleischman
2003, 112 pages, $6 list
Jemmy, once a poor boy living on the streets, now lives in a
castle. As the whipping boy, he bears the punishment when Prince Brat
misbehaves, for it is forbidden to spank, thrash, or whack the heir to the
throne. The two boys have nothing in common and even less reason to like one
another. But when they find themselves taken hostage after running away, they
are left with no choice but to trust each other.
MacLachlan:
Sarah, Plain and Tall (1986 Winner)
By Patricia MacLachlan
2004, 64 pages, $6 list
Their mother died the day after Caleb was born.
Their house on the prairie is quiet now, and Papa doesn't sing anymore. Then
Papa puts an ad in the paper, asking for a wife, and he receives a letter from
one Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton, of
McKinley:
The Hero and the Crown (1985 Winner)
By Robin McKinley
2007, 304 pages, $5 list
Robin McKinley's mesmerizing history of Damar is
the stuff that legends are made of. The Hero and the Crown is a dazzling
"prequel" to The Blue Sword.Aerin is the only child of the
king of Damar, and should be his rightful heir. But she is also the daughter of
a witchwoman of the North, who died when she was born, and the Damarians cannot
trust her.But Aerin's destiny is greater than her father's people know, for it
leads her to battle with Maur, the Black Dragon, and into the wilder Damarian
Hills, where she meets the wizard Luthe. It is he who at last tells her the
truth about her mother, and he also gives over to her hand the Blue Sword,
Gonturan. But such gifts as these bear a great price, a price Aerin only begins
to realize when she faces the evil mage, Agsded, who has seized the Hero's
Crown, greatest treasure and secret strength of Damar.
End of Newbery Books