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Newbery Medal Booklist



2013: One and Only Ivan
Author: Katherine Applegate
When Ivan, a gorilla who has lived for years in a down-and-out circus-themed mall, meets Ruby, a baby elephant that has been added to the mall, he decides that he must find her a better life.

2012: Dead End in Norvelt
Author: Jack Gantos
In historic Norvelt, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Jack 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.

2011: Moon Over Manifest
Author: Clare Vanderpool
Abilene Tucker hopes to learn about her father’s past when she goes to stay with an old friend of his in Manifest, Kansas, in the summer of 1936.

2010: When You Reach Me
Author: Rebecca Stead
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 seem to defy the laws of time and space.

2009: The Graveyard Book
Author: Neil Gaiman
After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.

2008: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village
Author: Laura Amy Schlitz
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.

2007: The Higher Power of Lucky
Author: Patron, Susan
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.

2006: Criss Cross
Author: Lynne Ray Perkins
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.

2005: Kira Kira
Author: Cynthia Kadohata
This book 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. kira-kira (kee' ra kee' ra): glittering; shining Glittering.

2004: The Tale of Despereaux
Author: Kate DiCamillo
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.

2003: Crispin: The Cross of Lead
Author: Avi
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.

2002: A Single Shard
Author: Linda Sue Park
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.

2001: A Year Down Yonder
Author: Richard Peck
During the recession of 1937, 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.

2000: Bud, Not Buddy
Author: Christopher Paul Curtis
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.

1999: Holes
Author: Louis Sachar
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.

1998: Out of the Dust
Author: Karen Hesse
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.

1997: The View From Saturday
Author: E.L. Konigsburg
Four students, with their own individual stories, develop a special bond and attract the attention of their teacher, a paraplegic, who choses them to represent their sixth-grade class in the Academic Bowl competition.

1996: Midwife’s Apprentice
Author: Karen Cushman
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.

1995: Walk Two Moons
Author: Sharon Creech
Salamanca Tree Hiddle, age 13, and her grandparents are off to find Salamanca's mother, who left home on a trip to Idaho and never came back. As they acquire a car and retrace her route, Sal tells the story of her friend Phoebe Winterbottom, whose mother also disappeared under unusual circumstances.

1994: The Giver
Author: Lois Lowry
A modern-day tale for readers of all ages! Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Now, Jonas is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now it's time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.

1993: Missing May
Author: Cynthia Rylant
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.

1992: Shiloh
Author: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
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.

1991: Maniac Magee
Author: Jerry Spinelli
After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee's life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic and other feats which awe his contemporaries.

1990: Number the Stars
Author: Lois Lowry
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.

1989: Joyful Noise: Poems of Two Voices
Author: Paul Fleischman
A collection of fourteen poems to be read aloud by two voices features works whose subjects include grasshoppers, butterflies, and other creatures.

1988: Lincoln: A Photobiography
Author: Russell Freedman
Photographs and text trace the life of the Civil War President.

1987: The Whipping Boy
Author: Sid Fleischman
A bratty prince and his whipping boy have many adventures when they inadvertently trade places after becoming involved with dangerous outlaws.

1986: Sarah, Plain and Tall
Author: Patricia MacLachlan
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.

1985: The Hero and the Crown
Author: Robin McKinley
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.

1984: Dear Mr. Henshaw
Author: Beverly Cleary
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.

1983: Dicey’s Song
Author: Cynthia Voigt
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.

1982: A Visit to William Blake’s Inn
Author: Nancy Willard
A collection of poems describing the curious menagerie of guests who arrive at William Blake’s inn.

1981: Jacob Have I Loved
Author: Katherine Paterson
Having felt deprived all her life of schooling, friends, mother, and even her name by her twin sister, Louise finally begins to find her identity.

1980: Gathering of Days
Author: Joan Blos
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.

1979: The Westing Game
Author: Ellen Raskin
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.

1978: Bridge to Terabithia
Author: Katherine Paterson
In this classic novel, the friendship between young Jess and Leslie grows as they meet in Terabithia--their secret hiding place--and only ends with the tragic death of one of them.

1977: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Author: Mildred Taylor
A black family living in Mississippi during the Depression of the 1930s is faced with prejudice and discrimination which its children do not understand.

1976: The Grey King
Author: Susan Cooper
A strange boy and dog remind Will Stanton that he is an immortal, whose quest is to find the golden harp which will rouse others from a long slumber in the Welsh hills so they may prepare for the ultimate battle of Light versus Dark.

1975: M.C. Higgins, the Great
Author: Virginia Hamilton
As a slag heap, the result of strip mining, creeps closer to his house in the Ohio hills, fifteen-year-old M.C. is torn between trying to get his family away and fighting for the home they love.

1974: The Slave Dancer
Author: Paula Fox
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.

1973: Julie of the Wolves
Author: Jean George
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.

1972: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Author: Robert O'Brien
Having no one to help her with her problems, a widowed mouse visits the rats whose former imprisonment in a laboratory made them wise and long lived.

1971: Summer of the Swans
Author: Betsy Byars
A teen-age girl gains new insight into herself and her family when her mentally retarded brother gets lost.

1970: Sounder
Author: William Armstrong
Angry and humiliated when his sharecropper father is jailed for stealing food for his family, a young black boy grows in courage and understanding by learning to read and through his relationship with his devoted dog Sounder.

1969: The High King
Author: Lloyd Alexander
In this final part of the chronicle of Prydain the forces of good and evil meet in an ultimate confrontation, which determines the fate of Taran, the Assistant Pig-Keeper who wanted to be a hero.

1968: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Author: E.L. Konigsburg
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.

1967: Up a Road Slowly
Author: Irene Hunt
After her mother's death, Julie goes to live with Aunt Cordelia, a spinster schoolteacher, where she experiences many emotions and changes as she grows from seven to eighteen.

1966: I, Juan de Pareja
Author: Elizabeth Tevino
Juan is the slave of the great Spanish painter Diego Valazquez and helps his master in his studio by preparing paints and stretching canvases. But Juan is an artist, too: he has taught himself by watching his master's technique. Although such work is forbidden by slaves, Jaun cannot keep his secret any longer.What will happen when the truth is known?

1965: Shadow of a Bull
Author: Maia Wojciechowska
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.

1964: It’s Like This, Cat
Author: Emily Neville
Although he acquired Cat only to defy his father, Dave Mitchell matures through the experiences that are instigated by his pet.

1963: A Wrinkle in Time
Author: Madeleine L'Engle
Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government.

1962: The Bronze Bow
Author: Elizabeth Speare
When the Romans brutally kill Daniel bar Jamin's father, the young Palestinian searches for a leader to drive them out, but comes to realize that love may be a more powerful weapon than hate.

1961: Island of the Blue Dolphins
Author: Scott O'Dell
Records the courage and self-reliance of an Indian girl who lived alone for eighteen years on an isolated island off the California coast when her tribe emigrated and she was left behind.

1960: Onion John
Author: Joseph Krumgold
His friendship with the town odd-jobs man, Onion John, causes a conflict between Andy and his father.

1959: The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Author: Elizabeth Speare
Kit Tyler leaves her luxurious home in Barbados to visit her Puritan aunt in colonial Connecticut. While there she becomes friendly with Hannah, the witch of Blackbird Pond.

1958: Rifles for Watie
Author: Harold Keith
Jeff Bussey, a Union volunteer, sees the Civil War from both sides when he is sent to spy on Stand Watie and his Confederate Cherokee raiders.

1957: Miracles on Maple Hill
Author: Virginia Sorensen
Marly and her family share many adventures when they move from the city to a farmhouse on Maple Hill.

1956: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
Author: Jean Lee Lathan
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.

1955: The Wheel on the School
Author: Meindert DeJong
Dutch schoolgirl Lina's composition about storks began the children's campaign to bring storks back to their village.

1954: And Now Miguel
Author: Joseph Krumgold
Depicts story of Miguel who has a wish to go to the mountains in the summer with the shepherds and tend to the flocks of sheep.

1953: Secret of the Andes
Author: Ann Clark
An Indian boy who tends llamas in a hidden valley in Peru learns the traditions and secrets of his Inca ancestors.

1952: Ginger Pye
Author: Eleanor Estes
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.

1951: Amos Fortune, Free Man
Author: Elizabeth Yates
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.

1950: The Door in the Wall
Author: Marguerite De Angeli
In the Middle Ages a young boy crippled by the plague has an adventurous journey from London to the castle where he becomes a page, proves his courage, and earns recognition from the King.

1949: King of the Wind
Author: Marguerite Henry
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.

1948: The Twenty-One Balloons
Author: William DuBois
Tells what happens to an old mathematician when he takes a trip across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.

1947: Miss Hickory
Author: Carolyn Bailey
Relates the adventures of a country doll made of an apple-wood twig with a hickory nut for a head.

1946: Strawberry Girl
Author: Lois Lenski
The story of the feud between the Slaters and the Boyers in Florida during the 1900's.

1945: Rabbit Hill
Author: Robert Lawson
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.

1944: Johnny Tremain
Author: Ester Forbes
A story filled with danger and excitement, Johnny Tremain tells of the turbulent times in Boston just after the Revolutionary War. Johnny, a young apprentice silversmith, is caught up in the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Lexington.

1943: Adam of the Road
Author: Elizabeth Gray
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.

1942: The Matchlock Gun
Author: Walter Edmonds
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.

1941: Call It Courage
Author: Armstrong Sperry
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.

1940: Daniel Boone
Author: James Daugherty
A biography of Daniel Boone.

1939: Thimble Summer
Author: Elizabeth Enright
A summer full of happiness and good times begins after a little girl finds a silver thimble at the swimming hole.

1938: The White Stag
Author: Kate Seredy
Retells the legendary story of the Huns' and Magyars' long migration from Asia to Europe where they hope to find a permanent home.

1937: Roller Skates
Author: Ruth Sawyer
The discoveries and adventures of ten-year-old Lucinda, who spends a wonderful year exploring the New York City of the 1890's.

1936: Caddie Woodlawn
Author: Carol Brink
The adventures of an eleven-year-old tomboy growing up on the Wisconsin frontier in the mid-nineteenth century.

1935: Dobry
Author: Monica Shannon
The story of life in a small Bulgarian village.

1934: Invincible Louisa
Author: Cornelia Meigs
Biography tracing the fascinating life of Louisa May Alcott from her happy childhood in Pennsylvania and Boston to her success as a writer of such classics as Little women.

1933: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze
Author: Elizabeth Lewis
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.

1932: Waterless Mountain
Author: Laura Armer
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.

1931: The Cat Who Went to Heaven
Author: Elizabeth Coatsworth
A pet cat begs the artis to include her in a picture of animals paying homage to Buddha.

1930: Hitty, Her First Hundred Years
Author: Rachel Field
When Phoebe Preble brings her special doll, Hitty, with her everywhere she goes, Hitty experiences wonderful adventures and makes a lot of new friends.

1929: The Trumpeter of Krakow
Author: Eric Kelly
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.

1928: Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon
Author: Dhan Mukerji
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: Smoky, the Cowhorse
Author: Will James
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.

1926: Shen of the Sea
Author: Arthur Chrisman
A selection of sixteen short Chinese stories accompanied by many illustrations.

1925: Tales from Silver Lands
Author: Charles Finger
The book is a collection of nineteen folktales of Central and South America.

1924: The Dark Frigate
Author: Charles Hawes
In seventeenth-century England, orphaned Philip Marsham, forced to flee London after a terrible accident, finds himself in an even more difficult situation when his ship is taken over by pirates and he is forced to become a member of their crew.

1923: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle
Author: Hugh Lofting
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.

1922: The Story of Mankind
Author: Hendrik Van Loon
Hendrik Willem van Loon's ability to convey history as a fascinating tale of adventure has endeared this book to countless readers.