Newbery Medal Winners

The Newbery Medal is a prestigious award which is presented annually by the American Library Association to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children published the previous year.

It was first awarded in 1922, making it the first children’s book award in the world, and it continues to be one of the best known and most discussed children’s book awards in the USA, together with the Caldecott Award. It was named after the eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery and was created with the purpose of recognising children’s authors and encouraging good writing in this field.

Reviewing past winners is a reliable way of finding inspirational and captivating novels suitable for young readers. However, the recommended reading age of the winning book varies year by year from aged 8+ to aged 14+. So to help you choose just the right book for your child I have compiled below the full list of Newbery Medal Winners grouped by recommended reading age. There are even recommendations for the very best of the best - the top twenty-five winners considered by some to be most deserving of receiving this prestigious award.

First, however, a little bit more about the most recent winners. Keep reading for brief reviews of the last few books to win this coveted award.

The Latest Newbery Medal Winners

Below you can find details of the most recent winners of the Newbery Medal.

The Crossover

by Kwame Alexander is about two 12-year-old African American twin boys who are basketball stars, coached by their father, a former professional basketball player, and supported by their mother, the assistant-principal. When an attractive girl arrives on the scene, the brothers begin the painful process of moving apart for the first time. This 2015 winner, a novel suitable for readers aged 11 and over, is written in verse with quirky vocabulary adding an amusing touch to the narrative.

Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

by Kate DiCamillo was the 2014 winner. It is the amusing story of a squirrel named Ulysses who gains super-squirrel powers, and an intelligent 10 year-old girl, Flora, who is a comic-lover and self-proclaimed cynic. Full-page illustrations and comic-style graphic sequences help to captivate young readers. Suitable for readers aged 8 and over.

The One and Only Ivan

was the winner of the 2013 Newbery Medal. This illustrated novel by Katherine Applegate tells the story of Ivan the gorilla, who has got used to his sad life behind a glass wall in a shopping mall. He occupies himself with television and painting and has a couple of friends for company. However, when a baby elephant called Ruby arrives from the wild, Ivan realises that he must do something to save her from a lifetime in captivity. Suitable for readers aged 8 and over.

Dead End in Norvelt

by Jack Gantos, is suitable for ages 11 and above. 12-year-old Jack is grounded for the summer for misbehaving and his mother volunteers him to help an elderly neighbour transcribe the obituaries of the original residents of his town, Norvelt. These funny and far-fetched stories of the colourful characters of Norvelt capture Jack's imagination. Winner of the 2012 Medal.

Moon over Manifest

by Clare Vanderpool won the 2011 award. In 1936 12-year-old Abilene is sent away by her father to stay in a town in Missouri which he left years earlier. Finding a hidden cigar box full of momentos, she spends the summer piecing together his mysterious past. Suitable for readers aged 9 and over.

When You Reach Me

by Rebecca Stead won the Newbery Medal in 2010. Set in New York City in 1979, this novel tells the story of 12-year-old Miranda whose life starts to unravel when she discovers mysterious notes from someone who seems to know all about her, including things which have not even happened yet. Suitable for readers aged 11 and over.

All Newbery Medal Winners by Recommended Reading Age

Below is the full list of Newbery Medal winners from 1922 until the present day. They have been grouped by the recommended reading age according to the Scholastic Book Wizard. Scholastic bases this age recommendation upon the age for which the content of the book is most appropriate.

Within each age grouping, books have been listed by the year in which they won the award, with the newest winners at the top of the list. Books have been highlighted with a star if they were considered to be one of the top twenty-five books most deserving of receiving the Newbery Medal, as voted by the goodreads community.

Several Newbery Medal Honour Books are also awarded each year to the runners up.

Click on these links to jump straight to books appropriate for children aged:

8 and over
9 and over
10 and over
11 and over
13 and over
14 and over

8 and over

2014
Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

by Kate DiCamillo

2013
The One and Only Ivan

by Katherine Applegate

2007
The Higher Power of Lucky

by Susan Patron, illustrate by Matt Phelan

2004

The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread

by Kate DiCamillo

1998

Out of the Dust

by Karen Hesse

1997

The View from Saturday

by E.L. Konigsburg

1993
Missing May

by Cynthia Rylant

1992

Shiloh

by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

1990

Number the Stars

by Lois Lowry

1989
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices

by Paul Fleischman

1988
Lincoln: A Photobiography

by Russell Freedman

1987
The Whipping Boy

by Sid Fleischman

1986

Sarah, Plain and Tall

by Patricia MacLachlan

1982
A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers

by Nancy Willard

1978

Bridge to Terabithia

by Katherine Paterson

1972

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

by Robert C. O'Brien

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

1968

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

by E.L. Konigsburg

1955
The Wheel on the School

by Meindert DeJong

1953
Secret of the Andes

by Ann Nolan Clark

1952
Ginger Pye

by Eleanor Estes

1950
The Door in the Wall

by Marguerite de Angeli

1948
The Twenty-One Balloons

by William Pène du Bois

1947
Miss Hickory

by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey

1945
Rabbit Hill

by Robert Lawson

1942
The Matchlock Gun

by Walter Edmonds

1939
Thimble Summer

by Elizabeth Enright

1937
Roller Skates

by Ruth Sawyer

1936

Caddie Woodlawn

by Carol Ryrie Brink

1931
The Cat Who Went to Heaven

by Elizabeth Coatsworth

1930
Hitty, Her First Hundred Years

by Rachel Field

1926
Shen of the Sea

by Arthur Bowie Chrisman

1925
Tales from Silver Lands
by Charles Finger

9 and over

2011
Moon over Manifest

by Clare Vanderpool

2006
Criss Cross

by Lynne Rae Perkins

1995

Walk Two Moons

by Sharon Creech

1991

Maniac Magee

by Jerry Spinelli

1984

Dear Mr. Henshaw

by Beverly Cleary

1969
The High King

by Lloyd Alexander

1946
Strawberry Girl

by Lois Lenski

1943
Adam of the Road

by Elizabeth Janet Gray

1935
Dobry
by Monica Shannon

10 and over

2000

Bud, Not Buddy

by Christopher Paul Curtis

1999

Holes

by Louis Sachar

1994

The Giver

by Lois Lowry

1983
Dicey's Song

by Cynthia Voigt

1977

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

by Mildred D. Taylor

1973
Julie of the Wolves

by Jean Craighead George

1970
Sounder

by William H. Armstrong

1941
Call It Courage

by Armstrong Sperry

1940
Daniel Boone
by James Daugherty

1932
Waterless Mountain

by Laura Adams Armer

11 and over

2015
The Crossover

by Kwame Alexander

2012
Dead End in Norvelt

by Jack Gantos

2010

When You Reach Me

by Rebecca Stead

2009

The Graveyard Book

by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean

2008
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village

by Laura Amy Schlitz

2005
Kira-Kira

by Cynthia Kadohata

2003
Crispin: The Cross of Lead

by Avi

2002
A Single Shard

by Linda Sue Park

1996
The Midwife's Apprentice

by Karen Cushman

1981

Jacob Have I Loved

by Katherine Paterson

1980
A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832

by Joan W. Blos

1979

The Westing Game

by Ellen Raskin

1976
The Grey King

by Susan Cooper

1975
M. C. Higgins, the Great

by Virginia Hamilton

1974
The Slave Dancer

by Paula Fox

1971
Summer of the Swans

by Betsy Byars

1966
I, Juan de Pareja

by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino

1965
Shadow of a Bull

by Maia Wojciechowska

1964
It's Like This, Cat

by Emily Neville

1963

A Wrinkle in Time

by Madeleine L'Engle

1962
The Bronze Bow

by Elizabeth George Speare

1961

Island of the Blue Dolphins

by Scott O'Dell

1960
Onion John

by Joseph Krumgold

1959

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

by Elizabeth George Speare

1957
Miracles on Maple Hill

by Virginia Sorensen

1956
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch

by Jean Lee Latham

1954
...And Now Miguel

by Joseph Krumgold

1951
Amos Fortune, Free Man

by Elizabeth Yates

1949
King of the Wind

by Marguerite Henry

1944

Johnny Tremain

by Esther Forbes

1938
The White Stag

by Kate Seredy

1934
Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women

by Cornelia Meigs

1933
Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze

by Elizabeth Lewis

1929
The Trumpeter of Krakow

by Eric P. Kelly

1928
Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon

by Dhan Gopal Mukerji

1927
Smoky, the Cowhorse

by Will James

1924
The Dark Frigate

by Charles Hawes

1923
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle

by Hugh Lofting

13 and over

2001
A Year Down Yonder

by Richard Peck

14 and over

1985
The Hero and the Crown

by Robin McKinley

1967
Up a Road Slowly

by Irene Hunt

1958
Rifles for Watie

by Harold Keith

1922
The Story of Mankind

by Hendrik Willem van Loon

Books have been highlighted with a star if they were considered to be one of the top twenty-five books most deserving of receiving the Newbery Medal, as voted by the goodreads community.