| Year | Title | Author | Comments by ROC | Comments by RJC |
| 2006 | Criss Cross | Lynne Rae Perkins | ||
| (honor) | Whittington | Alan Armstrong | ||
| (honor) | Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow | Susan Campbell Bartoletti | ||
| (honor) | Princess Academy | Shannon Hale | This book really shocked me. I've read several Shannon Hale books and they were okay; but this one really was spectacular. It is difficult to get a science fiction or fantasy book onto this list. (Yes I do believe that there is a bias.) But I suspected this book could do it. Congratulations, Shannon. | |
| (honor) | Show Way | Jacqueline Woodson | ||
| 2005 | Kira-Kira | Cynthia Kadohata | ||
| (honor) | Al Capone Does My Shirts | Gennifer Choldenko | ||
| (honor) | The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights | Russell Freedman | ||
| (honor) | Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy | Gary D. Schmidt | ||
| 2004 | The Tale of Despereaux | Kate DiCamillo | Charming! Delightful! There should be more books like this one. Excellent characters. Great style. | |
| (honor) | Olive's Ocean | Kevin Henkes | ||
| (honor) | An American Plague | Jim Murphy | ||
| 2003 | Crispin: The Cross of Lead | Avi | Maybe we should rename this "Crispin: the Prose of Lead." Actually, this adventure story isn't terrible, but I don't think it was Newbery Award quality. Oh, and some reviewers claimed there was no magic in the book. But I find the plot furthering "coincidences" quite mystical. | I guess they figured that Avi had written so many books for children that he ought to get at least one Newbury award. Why did they pick Crispin? It must have been a slow year for children's fiction. |
| (honor) | The House of the Scorpion | Nancy Farmer | ||
| (honor) | Pictures of Hollis Woods | Patricia Reilly Giff | ||
| (honor) | Hoot | Carl Hiaasen | ||
| (honor) | A Corner of the Universe | Ann M. Martin. | ||
| (honor) | Surviving the Applewhites | Stephanie S. Tolan | ||
| 2002 | A Single Shard | Linda Sue Park | This delightful work of historical fiction is a great look at ancient Korea. Also look for other books by Park, particularly "When My Name Was Keoko." | Thumbs up. Read it. |
| (honor) | Everything on a Waffle | Polly Horvath | ||
| (honor) | Carver: A Life in Poems | Marilyn Nelson | ||
| 2001 | A Year Down Yonder | Richard Peck | This is a sequel to the wonderful book two years earlier, and again Grandma Dowdle is both delightfully funny and poignant. | |
| (honor) | Because of Winn-Dixie | Kate DiCamillo | For those who like books with great characters, this is a great book. However, if you want an action plot, you may want to look elsewhere for entertainment. | |
| (honor) | Hope Was Here | Joan Bauer | ||
| (honor) | Joey Pigza Loses Control | Jack Gantos | ||
| (honor) | The Wanderer | Sharon Creech | ||
| 2000 | Bud, Not Buddy | Christopher Paul Curtis | This book is very funny and has a great storytelling style. I can't wait to see what Curtis writes next. | I laughed out loud, this time at the funny parts. |
| (honor) | Getting Near to Baby | Audrey Couloumbis | ||
| (honor) | 26 Fairmount Avenue | Tomie dePaola | ||
| (honor) | Our Only May Amelia | Jennifer L. Holm | ||
| 1999 | Holes | Louis Sachar | Wow! What else can I say? Wow! Read it. | Amazingly sophisticated, unusually satisfactory. |
| (honor) | A Long Way from Chicago | Richard Peck | In any other year, this book would have won the award. Grandma Dowdle is a marvelously funny, harsh, and at the same time sensitive character. | |
| 1998 | Out of the Dust | Karen Hesse | This was a well done historical fiction book about the depression, although I might suggest some better books (including "The Velvet Room" by Z. K. Snyder). | |
| (honor) | Ella Enchanted | Gail Carson Levine | Take a delightful premise, give it great characters and an engaging plot and you have this terrific book. What it lacks in its prose and depth, it makes up in heart and imagination. | The climax of this book was so good I read it twice. Wonderful first book! |
| (honor) | Lily's Crossing | Patricia Reilly Giff | The characters in this little World War II book shine beautifully, and are quite believable. | This book has a special place in my heart because of my Hungarian ancestry. |
| (honor) | Wringer | Jerry Spinelli | I personally thought this book should have won the award for its year. The conflicting emotions in the main character of this fable struck a chord with me. | |
| 1997 | The View from Saturday | E.L. Konigsburg | I was just delighted by the characters in this book. While the structure of the story is a bit off the beaten path, it is still easy to understand and fun to read. | |
| (honor) | A Girl Named Disaster | Nancy Farmer | This book starts very slowly, like all Farmer's books, and then builds gradually. | |
| (honor) | The Moorchild | Eloise Jarvis McGraw | McGraw's characters (particularly her minor characters) are always very rich and believable. This historical fantasy is more of a character adventure than her previous books. McGraw is a really under-appreciated writer, and my favorite McGraw book ("The Money Room") is hardly ever heard of. | |
| (honor) | The Thief | Megan Whalen Turner | I think this book was my favorite for its year. This neo-mythological book starts rather slow, but builds to a remarkable double climax. It is even more enjoyable on a second reading. | Read it twice. On the second go, the irony is devastating, and I mean that in a very good way. |
| (honor) | Belle Prater's Boy | Ruth White | While this book was a good book, the other honor books this year were superior. | |
| 1996 | The Midwife's Apprentice | Karen Cushman | While I enjoyed this book, I'm not sure it was really for children. | |
| (honor) | What Jamie Saw | Carolyn Coman | This is not a bad book, but I think it was written for the parents rather than the kids. | |
| (honor) | The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 | Christopher Paul Curtis | There is no question in my mind that this book should have won the Newbery award for its year. Curtis includes a wonderful mix of humor and intensity in his characters. | |
| (honor) | Yolonda's Genius | Carol Fenner | I really enjoyed the premise of this book, and would recommend it to any fan of old blues music. | |
| (honor) | The Great Fire | Jim Murphy | ||
| 1995 | Walk Two Moons | Sharon Creech | ||
| (honor) | Catherine, Called Birdy | Karen Cushman | ||
| (honor) | The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm | Nancy Farmer | ||
| 1994 | The Giver | Lois Lowry | A rare award for a science fiction book, this Newbery winner is among the more thought provoking books written. | |
| (honor) | Crazy Lady | Jane Leslie Conly | I enjoyed this book. Conly's sequels to her father's book ("Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH") were very poorly done, so this book was a breath of fresh air to those who followed her work. | |
| (honor) | Dragon's Gate | Laurence Yep | ||
| (honor) | Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery | Russell Freedman | ||
| 1993 | Missing May | Cynthia Rylant | ||
| (honor) | What Hearts | Bruce Brooks | ||
| (honor) | The Dark-thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural | Patricia C. McKissack | ||
| (honor) | Somewhere in the Darkness | Walter Dean Myers | ||
| 1992 | Shiloh | Phyllis Reynolds Naylor | I personally don't like sad dog books, but for those who do, this is among the best. | |
| (honor) | Nothing But the Truth: A Documentary Novel | Avi | ||
| (honor) | The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane | Russell Freedman | ||
| 1991 | Maniac Magee | Jerry Spinelli | Spinelli weaves a marvelous fable out of a children's rhyme. This is a truly masterful work. | |
| (honor) | The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle | Avi | I have to say, I'm not a big fan of Avi. What am I missing? | I found this book irritating. I never believed in the main character. She was too melodramatic. |
| 1990 | Number the Stars | Lois Lowry | This wonderful World War II drama was the beginning of a very strong decade for children's literature. | Hooray for Lois Lowry! This is one of my very favorite books. |
| (honor) | Afternoon of the Elves | Janet Taylor Lisle | This book was okay, but I think parents would get more out of it than their children. | Don't be decieved. No magic here. Only grim reality. Good read, though. |
| (honor) | Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind | Suzanne Fisher Staples | ||
| (honor) | The Winter Room | Gary Paulsen | ||
| 1989 | Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices | Paul Fleischman | I got this book for my birthday in 1989. I never read it through all the way. There's a copy of it somewhere around the house, I think. | |
| (honor) | In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World | Virginia Hamilton | ||
| (honor) | Scorpions | Walter Myers | ||
| 1988 | Lincoln: A Photobiography | Russell Freedman | ||
| (honor) | After the Rain | Norma Fox Mazer | ||
| (honor) | Hatchet | Gary Paulsen | For those who like wilderness adventure novels (like me) this one is a lot of fun. | |
| 1987 | The Whipping Boy | Sid Fleischman | I wish there were a few more books like this on the list. It is a fun yarn, accessible to younger readers, and informative to boot. | Another favorite. This is an easy read, a good beginning chapter book. Also makes a great read-aloud. |
| (honor) | A Fine White Dust | Cynthia Rylant | ||
| (honor) | On My Honor | Marion Dane Bauer | ||
| (honor) | Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens | Patricia Lauber | ||
| 1986 | Sarah, Plain and Tall | Patricia MacLachlan | While it's very short, it is still a classic, and deservedly so. | I loved this book. |
| (honor) | Commodore Perry in the Land of Shogun | Rhonda Blumberg | ||
| (honor) | Dogsong | Gary Paulsen | ||
| 1985 | The Hero and the Crown | Robin McKinley | The first half of this book is among McKinley's best work, even if it does flounder a bit in the second half. | "The Blue Sword" was better. The reason the second half is lousy is because this is a prequel, and in the second half McKinley is trying too hard to set up a book she's already written. I still loved the first half, though. |
| (honor) | Like Jake and Me | Mavis Jukes | ||
| (honor) | The Moves Make the Man | Bruce Brooks | ||
| (honor) | One-Eyed Cat | Paula Fox | ||
| 1984 | Dear Mr. Henshaw | Beverly Cleary | Aspiring writers should seriously read this book. | |
| (honor) | The Sign of the Beaver | Elizabeth George Speare | I liked this book, especially since I liked Robinson Crusoe when I was younger, as the main character in this book does. | Great historical fiction. |
| (honor) | A Solitary Blue | Cynthia Voigt | ||
| (honor) | Sugaring Time | Kathryn Lasky | ||
| (honor) | The Wish Giver: Three Tales of Coven Tree | Bill Brittain | A delightful cautionary tale. A quick read, charming style. I highly recommend it. | |
| 1983 | Dicey's Song | Cynthia Voigt | ||
| (honor) | The Blue Sword | Robin McKinley | This book and "Beauty" are probably McKinley's best complete books. | Fantasy adventure books rarely get on the Newbury honor list. A fantasy must be truly exceptional to join the ranks of the Newbury honors, and this one fits the bill. I must say I was disappointed when at the action climax McKinley merely resorts to pulling some big magical fireworks that I didn't feel prepared for, but otherwise a great book. |
| (honor) | Doctor DeSoto | William Steig | ||
| (honor) | Graven Images | Paul Fleischman | ||
| (honor) | Homesick: My Own Story | Jean Fritz | ||
| (honor) | Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush | Virginia Hamilton | ||
| 1982 | A Visit To William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers | Nancy Willard | One of my favorite books as a child, I read and re-read these poems. I still have some of them memorized. | |
| (honor) | Ramona Quimby, Age 8 | Beverly Cleary | ||
| (honor) | Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944 | Aranka Siegal | ||
| 1981 | Jacob Have I Loved | Katherine Paterson | This is a children's book? I think this must have been a really lean year for juvenile fiction. | I read this book as a child and didn't get it at all. Just because the characters in a book are children, that does not make it a children's book. Besides, I resented this sort of book because my elementary school librarian was always trying to get me to read books like this one instead of books by Roald Dahl and Susan Cooper, which I understood and liked. |
| (honor) | The Fledgling | Jane Langton | I couldn't believe in the characters, or the story, and this book is overly didactic, forcing its simplistic moral at the reader. The basic idea of the book is quite compelling, though. | The literary powers of Ms. Langdon seem wasted on this story. She writes so well, her descriptions are so captivating, but the fantasy elements are not well handled. |
| (honor) | A Ring of Endless Light | Madeline L'Engle | While I liked the first of the Austin Family books by L'Engle very much, this one starts to leave the realm of believability. L'Engle has many more books that are better than this one, in my opinion. | This book is very depressing. |
| 1980 | A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32 | Joan Blos | ||
| (honor) | The Road from Home: The Story of an Armenian Girl | David Kherdian | ||
| 1979 | The Westing Game | Ellen Raskin | I greatly enjoyed this puzzle of a book. Raskin is great with word-play and characters in her classic mystery. | Lots of fun. |
| (honor) | The Great Gilly Hopkins | Katherine Paterson | I didn't get it. | |
| 1978 | Bridge To Terabithia | Katherine Paterson | ||
| (honor) | Ramona and Her Father | Beverly Cleary | I enjoyed the Ramona Quimby books when I was a kid, but it's been years since I read one. | |
| (honor) | Anpao: An American Indian Odyssey | Jamake Highwater | ||
| 1977 | Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry | Mildred D. Taylor | ||
| (honor) | Abel's Island | William Steig | This one's kind of cute, but not what I'd consider a great book. | |
| (honor) | A String in the Harp | Nancy Bond | I thought this one deserved to win the award this year. It's a great little fantasy. | So I play the harp myself. How could I dislike this book? |
| 1976 | The Grey King | Susan Cooper | This is probably the second best book in the Dark is Rising series. I feel that the best book is "Over Sea, Under Stone" (the first in the series) but it is not as well known as the other books. | Like "A String in the Harp," a fantasy book set in modern Wales. The magic sticks out a little more in this book, though. I guess you could read it on its own, but I suggest reading it with the rest of the "Dark is Rising" sequence. AND start with "Over Sea and Under Stone." |
| (honor) | The Hundred Penny Box | Sharon Bell Mathis | ||
| (honor) | Dragonwings | Laurence Yep | ||
| 1975 | M.C. Higgins, the Great | Virginia Hamilton | ||
| (honor) | Figgs & Phantoms | Ellen Raskin | While not as clever as "The Westing Game" by the same author, this book is still a fun read. | |
| (honor) | My Brother Sam Is Dead | James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier | ||
| (honor) | The Perilous Gard | Elizabeth Marie Pope | I'm not sure if this book should be classified as a children's book. Still it's a great historical fiction story of 17th century England and its attendant superstitions. | This is a great book. It should be more widely known. |
| (honor) | Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe | Bette Green | ||
| 1974 | The Slave Dancer | Paula Fox | ||
| (honor) | The Dark Is Rising | Susan Cooper | This is a great fantasy, but start with the first book in the series, "Over Sea, Under Stone." | I loved this whole series when I was in sixth grade. |
| 1973 | Julie of the Wolves | Jean Craighead George | This is probably Ms. George's best written book -- really quite well done. | |
| (honor) | Frog and Toad Together | Arnold Lobel | I like the Frog and Toad books. I read them out loud to my children, doing funny voices for all the characters. | |
| (honor) | The Upstairs Room | Johanna Weiss | Poignant World War II historical fiction about two Jewish girls and the farmer who hides them from the Nazis for two years. Very honest, it gave me a real feel for what it must have been like to live through that terrible time. | |
| (honor) | The Witches of Worm | Zilpha Keatley Snyder | This is rather a dark book, and takes itself a bit too seriously. Snyder has written so many good books, I'd suggest starting with another. My favorite is "Black and Blue Magic." | |
| 1972 | Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH | Robert C. O'Brien | This classic science fiction tale for kids is one of my favorites to read aloud to my children. I'd highly recommend it. (But don't bother with the sequels). | I saw the movie first, and so thought the book a bit dull as a child. There were no sword fights, and it took them forever to get out of that lab. However, as an adult, I feel this book meets all my criteria for excellent science fiction. It has an interesting premise that is well explored. |
| (honor) | Incident At Hawk's Hill | Allan W. Eckert | A good nature book. | |
| (honor) | The Planet of Junior Brown | Virginia Hamilton | ||
| (honor) | The Tombs of Atuan | Ursula K. Le Guin | Of all the Le Guin books I've read, the only one that I feel I could recommend is this one. Even though it is the second in a trilogy, you don't need to read the other books to enjoy this one. | I just can't get into Le Guin's characters sometimes. They take themselves far too seriously. There are occasional, faint glimmers of humor in this book, but they are rare. Still, she's got a knack for inventing believable and interesting societies, and her ability to describe strange places and things in such a way that I can see them very clearly in my head makes this book worth reading. |
| (honor) | Annie and the Old One | Miska Miles | ||
| (honor) | The Headless Cupid | Zilpha Keatley Snyder | This is one of Snyder's better books, and that's saying something. | |
| 1971 | The Summer of the Swans | Betsy Byars | This book was nice, but I didn't find it all that compelling. | |
| (honor) | Kneeknock Rise | Natalie Babbitt | ||
| (honor) | Enchantress from the Stars | Sylvia Louise Engdahl | I think this book kind of came out of the blue. It's really quite good, and a bit ahead of its time in philosophy. It's more of a teen sci-fi novel. | This book had more influence on my thinking than almost anything else I read in Junior High. Amazing. |
| (honor) | Sing Down the Moon | Scott O'Dell | ||
| 1970 | Sounder | William H. Armstrong | Another sad dog book - if you like that sort of thing, you'll probably like this book. | |
| (honor) | Our Eddie | Sulamith Ish-Kishor | ||
| (honor) | The Many Ways of Seeing: An Introduction to the Pleasures of Art | Janet Moore | ||
| (honor) | Journey Outside | Mary Q. Steele | ||
| 1969 | The High King | Lloyd Alexander | What a romp - this book is quite exciting - even if the character development is a bit wanting. | I liked it. |
| (honor) | To Be a Slave | Julius Lester | ||
| (honor) | When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories | Isaac Bashevis Singer | ||
| 1968 | From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler | E. L. Konigsburg | I think this is Konigsburg's best book, and that's saying a lot. I have enjoyed many of her later books, but none have topped this one to my thinking. | |
| (honor) | Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth | E. L. Konigsburg | This book however, did not do much for me. One book a year on these lists is probably enough. | |
| (honor) | The Black Pearl | Scott O'Dell | ||
| (honor) | The Fearsome Inn | Isaac Bashevis Singer | ||
| (honor) | The Egypt Game | Zilpha Keatley Snyder | I greatly enjoyed this book, and loved the characters. Of course, my favorite Snyder book is the almost forgotten "Black and Blue Magic." | |
| 1967 | Up a Road Slowly | Irene Hunt | ||
| (honor) | The King's Fifth | Scott O'Dell | When I was younger, I read and enjoyed this book, but I can't recall much of it now. | |
| (honor) | Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories | Isaac Bashevis Singer | ||
| (honor) | The Jazz Man | Mary H. Weik | ||
| 1966 | I, Juan de Pareja | Elizabeth Borton de Treviño | ||
| (honor) | The Black Cauldron | Lloyd Alexander | Read the first book in the series first ("The Book of Three") and skip book 4 ("Taran Wanderer") to fully enjoy the Chronicles of Prydain. | |
| (honor) | The Animal Family | Randall Jarrell | ||
| (honor) | The Noonday Friends | Mary Stolz | ||
| 1965 | Shadow of A Bull | Maia Wojciechowska | I thought this was a very nice book. It has a rather popular theme among writers for young readers, but it was handled very well. | |
| (honor) | Across Five Aprils | Irene Hunt | ||
| 1964 | It's Like This, Cat | Emily Cheney Neville | This coming of age story was nice. If you're looking for an action story, it's probably not for you, but I enjoyed it. | |
| (honor) | Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era | Sterling North | ||
| (honor) | The Loner | Ester Weir | ||
| 1963 | A Wrinkle in Time | Madeleine L'Engle | L'Engle is one of the few prolific writers who's first book is her best. This one is considered a classic, and it deserves the honor. | |
| (honor) | Thistle and Thyme: Tales and Legends from Scotland | Sorche Nic Leodhas | Please bring this book back into print! These Scottish folk tales are so very delightful that it's a shame more people haven't heard of this collection. | |
| (honor) | Men of Athens | Olivia Coolidge | ||
| 1962 | The Bronze Bow | Elizabeth George Speare | Historical Fiction set in Biblical times is no longer acceptable in today's political climate. It's too bad, because we won't likely see another great book like this for some time. | |
| (honor) | Frontier Living | Edwin Tunis | ||
| (honor) | The Golden Goblet | Eloise Jarvis McGraw | I thought this book should have won the award for this year. This adventure has some marvelous minor characters. Nobody draws up a more elegant, richly developed supporting cast than McGraw. | |
| (honor) | Belling the Tiger | Mary Stolz | ||
| 1961 | Island of the Blue Dolphins | Scott O'Dell | Another great wilderness survival book. I always enjoyed reading these as a child just in case I ever got left alone on a desert island. | |
| (honor) | America Moves Forward: A History for Peter | Gerald W. Johnson | ||
| (honor) | Old Ramon | Jack Schaefer | ||
| (honor) | The Cricket in Times Square | George Selden | I remember reading this on the bus in third grade and laughing so hard at one point the kid in the next seat turned around and asked me what was so funny. Something the pidgeon said, I think. | |
| 1960 | Onion John | Joseph Krumgold | ||
| (honor) | My Side of the Mountain | Jean Craighead George | This is the great classic wilderness survival adventure of the juvenile fiction scene. It's my favorite of George's books to read. | I love this book, though I suspect that Sam Greely is really a girl. I mean, what kind of boy living out in the woods for a year would bathe every day? |
| (honor) | America Is Born: A History for Peter | Gerald W. Johnson | ||
| (honor) | The Gammage Cup | Carol Kendall | This is a fairly cute little fantasy, with a theme common to many writers for children. Don't read the sequel, though. | |
| 1959 | The Witch of Blackbird Pond | Elizabeth George Speare | Despite being quite a famous novel, this book still doesn't get all the praise it deserves. | |
| (honor) | The Family Under the Bridge | Natalie Savage Carlson | ||
| (honor) | Along Came a Dog | Meindert DeJong | ||
| (honor) | Chúcaro: Wild Pony of the Pampa | Francis Kalnay | ||
| (honor) | The Perilous Road | William O. Steele | I enjoyed this little civil war piece. | |
| 1958 | Rifles for Watie | Harold V. Keith | ||
| (honor) | The Horsecatcher | Mari Sandoz | ||
| (honor) | Gone-Away Lake | Elizabeth Enright | ||
| (honor) | The Great Wheel | Robert Lawson | ||
| (honor) | Tom Paine, Freedom's Apostle | Leo Gurko | ||
| 1957 | Miracles on Maple Hill | Virginia Sorensen | ||
| (honor) | Old Yeller | Fred Gipson | The most classic of all the sad dog books. If you like such books, be sure to read this one. | |
| (honor) | The House of Sixty Fathers | Meindert DeJong | ||
| (honor) | Mr. Justice Holmes | Clara Ingram Judson | ||
| (honor) | The Corn Grows Ripe | Dorothy Rhoads | ||
| (honor) | Black Fox of Lorne | Marguerite de Angeli | I thought this was a great story, even if the writing style seems a bit old fashioned. | |
| 1956 | Carry On, Mr. Bowditch | Jean Lee Latham | A dramatized biography of one of the most influential individuals of early American science and navigation should not be missed. Read this book. | |
| (honor) | The Secret River | Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings | ||
| (honor) | The Golden Name Day | Jennie Linquist | ||
| (honor) | Men, Microscopes, and Living Things | Katherine Shippen | ||
| 1955 | The Wheel on the School | Meindert DeJong | ||
| (honor) | The Courage of Sarah Noble | Alice Dalgliesh | ||
| (honor) | Banner in the Sky | James Ullman | ||
| 1954 | ... And Now Miguel | Joseph Krumgold | An enjoyable coming of age story. | |
| (honor) | All Alone | Claire Hutchet Bishop | ||
| (honor) | Shadrach | Meindert DeJong | ||
| (honor) | Hurry Home, Candy | Meindert DeJong | ||
| (honor) | Theodore Roosevelt, Fighting Patriot | Clara Ingram Judson | ||
| (honor) | Magic Maize | Mary and Conrad Buff | ||
| 1953 | Secret of the Andes | Ann Nolan Clark | I really liked this coming of age tale. It's compelling characters really move the story along. | |
| (honor) | Charlotte's Web | E. B. White | The feel of spending a lazy summer on the farm infuses this book with great character. | |
| (honor) | Moccasin Trail | Eloise Jarvis McGraw | While this is not her best offering, McGraw can always be counted on for a rich supporting cast. | |
| (honor) | Red Sails to Capri | Ann Weil | ||
| (honor) | The Bears on Hemlock Mountain | Alice Dalgliesh | ||
| (honor) | Birthdays of Freedom, Volume 1 | Genevieve Foster | ||
| 1952 | Ginger Pye | Eleanor Estes | ||
| (honor) | Americans Before Columbus | Elizabeth Baity | ||
| (honor) | Minn of the Mississippi | Holling C. Holling | ||
| (honor) | The Defender | Nicholas Kalashnikoff | ||
| (honor) | The Light At Tern Rock | Julia Sauer | ||
| (honor) | The Apple and the Arrow | Mary and Conrad Buff | This is a nice take on the old tale of Tell. | |
| 1951 | Amos Fortune, Free Man | Elizabeth Yates | ||
| (honor) | Better Known As Johnny Appleseed | Mabel Leigh Hunt | ||
| (honor) | Gandhi, Fighter Without A Sword | Jeanette Eaton | ||
| (honor) | Abraham Lincoln, Friend of the People | Clara Ingram Judson | ||
| (honor) | The Story of Appleby Capple | Anne Parrish | ||
| 1950 | The Door in the Wall | Marguerite de Angeli | This is a great book about overcoming adversity. And I'm a sucker for good historical fiction. | |
| (honor) | Tree of Freedom | Rebecca Caudill | ||
| (honor) | The Blue Cat of Castle Town | Catherine Coblentz | ||
| (honor) | Kildee House | Rutherford Montgomery | ||
| (honor) | George Washington | Genevieve Foster | ||
| (honor) | Song of the Pines: A Story of Norwegian Lumbering in Wisconsin | Walter and Marion Havighurst | ||
| 1949 | King of the Wind | Marguerite Henry | I think this is the only horse book to win a Newbery. It's a must read for lovers of horse books. | |
| (honor) | Seabird | Holling C. Holling | ||
| (honor) | Daughter of the Mountains | Louise Rankin | ||
| (honor) | My Father's Dragon | Ruth S. Gannett | This book is quite cute, and also accessible to younger readers. | A good puzzle book. |
| (honor) | Story of the Negro | Arna Bontemps | ||
| 1948 | The Twenty-One Balloons | William Pene du Bois | A rare win for science fiction, this one has a real classic feel to it. | |
| (honor) | Pancakes-Paris | Claire Hutchet Bishop | ||
| (honor) | Li Lun, Lad of Courage | Carolyn Treffinger | ||
| (honor) | The Quaint and Curious Quest of Johnny Longfoot | Catherine Besterman | ||
| (honor) | The Cow-Tail Switch, and Other West African Stories | Harold Courlander | I'd always suggest reading good collections of folk tales. | |
| (honor) | Misty of Chincoteague | Marguerite Henry | A horse book. | |
| 1947 | Miss Hickory | Carolyn Sherwin Bailey | This one is cute. | |
| (honor) | Wonderful Year | Nancy Barnes | ||
| (honor) | Big Tree | Mary and Conrad Buff | ||
| (honor) | The Heavenly Tenants | William Maxwell | ||
| (honor) | The Avion My Uncle Flew | Cyrus Fisher | ||
| (honor) | The Hidden Treasure of Glaston | Eleanore Jewett | Works of folk-Christianity were once common, and hardly ever seen anymore. This one is quite a good tale, and I'd highly recommend it. | |
| 1946 | Strawberry Girl | Lois Lenski | ||
| (honor) | Justin Morgan Had A Horse | Marguerite Henry | ||
| (honor) | The Moved-Outers | Florence Crannell Means | ||
| (honor) | Bhimsa, the Dancing Bear | Christine Weston | ||
| (honor) | New Found World | Katherine Shippen | ||
| 1945 | Rabbit Hill | Robert Lawson | ||
| (honor) | The Hundred Dresses | Eleanor Estes | ||
| (honor) | The Silver Pencil | Alice Dalgliesh | ||
| (honor) | Abraham Lincoln's World | Genevieve Foster | ||
| (honor) | Lone Journey: The Life of Roger Williams | Jeanette Eaton | ||
| 1944 | Johnny Tremain | Esther Forbes | This book has become quite a classic. | |
| (honor) | These Happy Golden Years | Laura Ingalls Wilder | I remember enjoying Wilder's books when I was young, but I haven't read any in decades. | |
| (honor) | Fog Magic | Julia Sauer | ||
| (honor) | Rufus M. | Eleanor Estes | ||
| (honor) | Mountain Born | Elizabeth Yeats | ||
| 1943 | Adam of the Road | Elizabeth Janet Gray (Vining) | ||
| (honor) | The Middle Moffat | Eleanor Estes | ||
| (honor) | Have You Seen Tom Thumb? | Mabel Leigh Hunt | ||
| 1942 | The Matchlock Gun | Walter D. Edmonds | ||
| (honor) | Little Town On the Prairie | Laura Ingalls Wilder | I loved these Laura Ingalls Wilder books. What a treasure, to have this time period preserved for us in these charming books. | |
| (honor) | George Washington's World | Genevieve Foster | ||
| (honor) | Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison | Lois Lenski | ||
| (honor) | Down Ryton Water | Eva Roe Gaggin | ||
| 1941 | Call it Courage | Armstrong Sperry | I really enjoyed this Polynesian adventure story. | |
| (honor) | Blue Willow | Doris Gates | ||
| (honor) | Young Mac of Fort Vancouver | Mary Jane Carr | ||
| (honor) | The Long Winter | Laura Ingalls Wilder | ||
| (honor) | Nansen | Anna Gertrude Hall | ||
| 1940 | Daniel Boone | James Daugherty | ||
| (honor) | The Singing Tree | Kate Seredy | This sequel was pretty good, but not as good as the original ("The Good Master"). | |
| (honor) | Runner of the Mountain Tops: The Life of Louis Agassiz | Mabel Robinson | ||
| (honor) | By the Shores of Silver Lake | Laura Ingalls Wilder | ||
| (honor) | Boy With A Pack | Stephen W. Meader | ||
| 1939 | Thimble Summer | Elizabeth Enright | ||
| (honor) | Nino | Valenti Angelo | ||
| (honor) | Mr. Popper's Penguins | Richard and Florence Atwater | Some people really like this book. I wasn't taken by it, though. | |
| (honor) | Hello the Boat! | Phyllis Crawford | ||
| (honor) | Leader By Destiny: George Washington, Man and Patriot | Jeanette Eaton | ||
| (honor) | Penn | Elizabeth Janet Gray (Vining) | ||
| 1938 | The White Stag | Kate Seredy | Classic Hungarian folk tales make for excellent reading. | |
| (honor) | Pecos Bill | James Cloyd Bowman | ||
| (honor) | Bright Island | Mabel Robinson | ||
| (honor) | On the Banks of Plum Creek | Laura Ingalls Wilder | ||
| 1937 | Roller Skates | Ruth Sawyer | ||
| (honor) | Phebe Fairchild: Her Book | Lois Lenski | ||
| (honor) | Whistlers' Van | Idwal Jones | ||
| (honor) | The Golden Basket | Ludwig Bemelmans | ||
| (honor) | Winterbound | Margery Williams Bianco | ||
| (honor) | The Codfish Musket | Agnes Hewes | ||
| (honor) | Audubon | Constance Rourke | ||
| 1936 | Caddie Woodlawn | Carol Ryrie Brink | ||
| (honor) | Honk, the Moose | Phil Stong | ||
| (honor) | The Good Master | Kate Seredy | This book should have won for the year, but it is too similar in style to "Dobry" which won the year before, so it only garnered an honor. | |
| (honor) | Young Walter Scott | Elizabeth Janet Gray (Vining) | ||
| (honor) | All Sail Set: A Romance of the Flying Cloud | Armstrong Sperry | ||
| 1935 | Dobry | Monica Shannon | This is a nice book with the all too common theme of children's books - "I just gotta be different! I know, I'll be an artist! I may be shunned and persecuted by family and friends, but I've just gotta be me." I shouldn't be so bitter about it. It's not Ms. Shannon's fault. | |
| (honor) | The Pageant of Chinese History | Elizabeth Seeger | ||
| (honor) | Davy Crockett | Constance Rourke | ||
| (honor) | A Day on Skates: The Story of a Dutch Picnic | Hilda Von Stockum | ||
| 1934 | Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women | Cornelia Meigs | This is a nice little dramatized biography. It works better if you've read "Little Women." | |
| (honor) | The Forgotten Daughter | Caroline Snedeker | ||
| (honor) | Swords of Steel: The Story of a Gettysburg Boy | Elsie Singmaster | ||
| (honor) | The ABC Bunny | Wanda Gag | ||
| (honor) | The Winged Girl of Knossos | Erick Berry | ||
| (honor) | New Land | Sarah Schmidt | ||
| (honor) | Big Tree of Bunlahy: Stories of My Own Countryside | Padraic Colum | ||
| (honor) | Glory of the Seas | Agnes Hewes | ||
| (honor) | The Apprentice of Florence | Ann Kyle | ||
| 1933 | Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze | Elizabeth Foreman Lewis | ||
| (honor) | Swift Rivers | Cornelia Meigs | ||
| (honor) | The Railroad to Freedom: A Story of the Civil War | Hildegarde Swift | ||
| (honor) | Children of the Soil: A Story of Scandinavia | Nora Burglon | ||
| 1932 | Waterless Mountain | Laura Adams Armer | ||
| (honor) | The Fairy Circus | Dorothy P. Lathrop | ||
| (honor) | Calico Bush | Rachel Field | ||
| (honor) | Boy of the South Seas | Eunice Tietjens | ||
| (honor) | Out of the Flame | Eloise Lownsbery | ||
| (honor) | Jane's Island | Marjorie Allee | ||
| (honor) | The Truce of the Wolf and Other Tales of Old Italy | Mary Gould Davis | ||
| 1931 | The Cat Who Went to Heaven | Elizabeth Coatsworth | While it's a bit strange, this tale is quite interesting. | |
| (honor) | Floating Island | Anne Parrish | ||
| (honor) | The Dark Star of Itza: The Story of A Pagan Princess | Alida Malkus | ||
| (honor) | Queer Person | Ralph Hubbard | ||
| (honor) | Mountains Are Free | Julia Davis (Adams) | ||
| (honor) | Spice and the Devil's Cave | Agnes Hewes | ||
| (honor) | Meggy MacIntosh | Elizabeth Janet Gray (Vining) | ||
| (honor) | Garram the Hunter: A Boy of the Hill Tribes | Herbert Best | ||
| (honor) | Ood-le-uk the Wanderer | Alice Lide and Margaret Johansen | ||
| 1930 | Hitty, Her First Hundred Years | Rachel Field | ||
| (honor) | A Daughter of the Seine: The Life of Madame Roland | Jeanette Eaton | ||
| (honor) | Pran of Albania | Elizabeth Miller | ||
| (honor) | The Jumping-off Place | Marian Hurd McNeely | ||
| (honor) | The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales: Episodes from the Fionn Saga | Ella Young | ||
| (honor) | Vaino, a Boy of New Finland | Julia Davis (Adams) | ||
| (honor) | Little Blacknose: The Story of a Pioneer | Hildegarde Hoyt Swift | ||
| 1929 | The Trumpeter of Krakow: A Tale of the Fifteenth Century | Eric P. Kelly | While most of the books from the early age of children's literature are rather mediocre, this one shines as one of the truly great adventure stories ever written. | |
| (honor) | The Pigtail of Ah Lee Ben Loo, with Seventeen Other Laughable Tales & 200 Comical Silhouettes | John Bennett | ||
| (honor) | Millions of Cats | Wanda Gag | ||
| (honor) | The Boy Who Was | Grace Hallock | ||
| (honor) | Clearing Weather | Cornelia Meigs | ||
| (honor) | The Runaway Papoose | Grace Purdie Moon | ||
| (honor) | Tod, of the Fens | Elinor Whitney | ||
| 1928 | Gay-Neck, the Story of a Pigeon | Dhan Gopal Mukerji | I liked this book. While it wasn't great literature, it was rather nice to read. | Because I read this book as a kid I've always wanted to keep pidgeons. |
| (honor) | The Wonder Smith and His Son: A Tale from the Golden Childhood of the World | Ella Young | ||
| (honor) | Downright Dencey | Caroline Snedeker | ||
| 1927 | Smoky, the Cow Horse | Will James | ||
| 1926 | Shen of the Sea | Arthur Bowie Chrisman | I'm surprised and delighted that they allowed two collections of folktales win in successive years. | |
| (honor) | The Voyagers: Being Legends and Romances of Atlantic Discovery | Padraic Colum | ||
| 1925 | Tales from Silver Lands | Charles Finger | Folk tales are among the best stories, and this collection is a good one. | |
| (honor) | Nicholas: A Manhattan Christmas Story | Annie Carroll Moore | ||
| (honor) | The Dream Coach | Anne Parrish | ||
| 1924 | The Dark Frigate | Charles Boardman Hawes | Perhaps a bit violent, this exciting book feels like the old adventure books of the previous century. | |
| 1923 | The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle | Hugh Lofting | This book is quite fun, and much better written than the first Doctor Dolittle book. | |
| 1922 | The Story of Mankind | Hendrik Willem van Loon | This book is only famous because it won the first Newbery award. It's not all that good of a read, and it's science is (of course) very outdated. | |
| (honor) | The Great Quest: A Romance of 1826 | Charles Boardman Hawes | ||
| (honor) | Cedric, the Forester | Bernard Marshall | ||
| (honor) | The Old Tobacco Shop: A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of Adventure | William Bowen | ||
| (honor) | The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles | Padraic Colum | ||
| (honor) | The Windy Hill | Cornelia Meigs |