The Newbery Medal has been awarded each year since 1922 to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. It is awarded by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association.
2017 Winner:
The Girl Who Drank the Moon
by Kelly Barnhill
2016 Winner:
Last Stop on Market Street
by Matt De La Peña
Recommended Age: 5
2015 Winner:
The Crossover
by Kwame Alexander
Recommended Age: 11
2014 Winner:
Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures
by Kate DiCamillo
Recommended Age: 9
2013 Winner:
The One and Only Ivan
by Katherine Applegate
Recommended Age: 8
2012 Winner:
Dead End in Norvelt
by Jack Gantos
Recommended Age: 12
2011 Winner:
Moon over Manifest
by Clare Vanderpool
Recommended Age: 9
2010 Winner:
When You Reach Me
by Rebecca Stead
Recommended Age: 10
Also: Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children's Literature
2009 Winner:
The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman, Illustrated by Dave McKean
Recommended Age: 12
Also: Cybils Award Winners
2008 Winner:
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village
by Laura Amy Schlitz
Recommended Age: 10
Also: Former Sonlight Books
2007 Winner:
The Higher Power of Lucky
by Susan Patron, Illustrated by Matt Phelan
Recommended Age: 9
2006 Winner:
Criss Cross
by Lynne Rae Perkins
Recommended Age: 10
2005 Winner:
Kira-Kira
by Cynthia Kadohata
Recommended Age: 12
2004 Winner:
The Tale of Despereaux
by Kate DiCamillo
Recommended Age: 8
Also: Amazon's 100 Children's Books to Read in a Lifetime
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades K-3
2003 Winner:
Crispin: The Cross of Lead
by Avi
Recommended Age: 11
2002 Winner:
A Single Shard
by Linda Sue Park
Recommended Age: 10
2001 Winner:
A Year Down Yonder
by Richard Peck
Recommended Age: 9
2000 Winner:
Bud, Not Buddy
by Christopher Paul
Recommended Age: 10
1999 Winner:
Holes
by Louis Sachar
Recommended Age: 9
Also: Amazon's 100 Children's Books to Read in a Lifetime
Also: Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children's Literature
Also: National Book Award Young People's Literature Winners
1998 Winner:
Out of the Dust
by Karen Hesse
Recommended Age: 11
1997 Winner:
The View from Saturday
by E.L. Konigsburg
Recommended Age: 12
1996 Winner:
The Midwife’s Apprentice
by Karen Cushman
Recommended Age: 12
1995 Winner:
Walk Two Moons
by Sharon Creech
Recommended Age: 11
Also: Amazon's 100 Children's Books to Read in a Lifetime
1994 Winner:
The Giver
by Lois Lowry
Recommended Age: 12
Also: Amazon's 100 Children's Books to Read in a Lifetime
Also: Former Sonlight Books
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 7-8
1993 Winner:
Missing May
by Cynthia Rylant
Recommended Age: 10
Also: Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children's Literature
1992 Winner:
Shiloh
by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Recommended Age: 11
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades K-3
1991 Winner:
Maniac Magee
by Jerry Spinelli
Recommended Age: 11
Also: Amazon's 100 Children's Books to Read in a Lifetime
Also: Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children's Literature
1990 Winner:
Number the Stars
by Lois Lowry
Recommended Age: 10
1989 Winner:
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices
by Paul Fleischman
Recommended Age: 7
1988 Winner:
Lincoln: A Photobiography
by Russell Freedman
Recommended Age: 10
1987 Winner:
The Whipping Boy
by Sid Fleischman
Recommended Age: 9
Also: Moving Beyond the Page Age 7-9
Also: Reading Roadmaps 2nd Grade
1986 Winner:
Sarah, Plain and Tall
by Patricia MacLachlan
Recommended Age: 8
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades K-3
Also: Sonlight Level D for Ages 8-11
Also: Veritas Press 2nd Grade Literature
1985 Winner:
The Hero and the Crown
by Robin McKinley
Recommended Age: 13
1984 Winner:
Dear Mr. Henshaw
by Beverly Cleary
Recommended Age: 10
1983 Winner:
Dicey’s Song
by Cynthia Voigt
Recommended Age: 12
1982 Winner:
A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers
by Nancy Willard
Recommended Age: 2
Also: Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children's Literature
Also: Memoria Press 2nd Grade Read-Aloud Program
1981 Winner:
Jacob Have I Loved
by Katherine Paterson
Recommended Age: 13
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 7-8
1980 Winner:
A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal, 1830-1832
by Joan W. Blos
Recommended Age: 15
Also: Former Sonlight Books
Also: National Book Award Children's Book Winners
1979 Winner:
The Westing Game
by Ellen Raskin
Recommended Age: 12
Also: Amazon's 100 Children's Books to Read in a Lifetime
Also: Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children's Literature
Also: Former Sonlight Books
1978 Winner:
Bridge to Terabithia
by Katherine Paterson
Recommended Age: 8
Also: Amazon's 100 Children's Books to Read in a Lifetime
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 4-6
1977 Winner:
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
by Mildred D. Taylor
Recommended Age: 11
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 7-8
Also: Sonlight Level E for Ages 9-12
1976 Winner:
The Grey King (The Dark is Rising Sequence)
by Susan Cooper
Recommended Age: 11
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 4-6
1975 Winner:
M. C. Higgins, the Great
by Virginia Hamilton
Recommended Age: 12
Also: Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children's Literature
Also: National Book Award Children's Book Winners
1974 Winner:
The Slave Dancer
by Paula Fox
Recommended Age: 12
1973 Winner:
Julie of the Wolves
by Jean Craighead George
Recommended Age: 14
Also: Former Sonlight Books
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 7-8
1972 Winner:
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
by Robert C. O’Brien
Recommended Age: 9
Also: Amazon's 100 Children's Books to Read in a Lifetime
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades K-3
1971 Winner:
Summer of the Swans
by Betsy Byars
Recommended Age: 8
1970 Winner:
Sounder
by William H. Armstrong
Recommended Age: 11
Also: Former Sonlight Books
1969 Winner:
The High King (The Chronicles of Prydain)
by Lloyd Alexander
Recommended Age: 9
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 4-6
1968 Winner:
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
by E.L. Konigsburg
Recommended Age: 11
Also: Amazon's 100 Children's Books to Read in a Lifetime
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 4-6
Also: Sonlight Level E for Ages 9-12
1967 Winner:
Up a Road Slowly
by Irene Hunt
Recommended Age: 9
1966 Winner:
I, Juan de Pareja
by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino
Recommended Age: 9
1965 Winner:
Shadow of a Bull
by Maia Wojciechowska
Recommended Age: 13
1964 Winner:
It’s Like This, Cat
by Emily Neville
Recommended Age: 10
1963 Winner:
A Wrinkle in Time
by Madeleine L’Engle
Recommended Age: 11
Also: Amazon's 100 Children's Books to Read in a Lifetime
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 7-8
1962 Winner:
The Bronze Bow
by Elizabeth George Speare
Recommended Age: 11
1961 Winner:
Island of the Blue Dolphins
by Scott O’Dell
Recommended Age: 9
Also: Amazon's 100 Children's Books to Read in a Lifetime
Also: Former Sonlight Books
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 7-8
1960 Winner:
Onion John
by Joseph Krumgold
Recommended Age: 8
1959 Winner:
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
by Elizabeth George Speare
Recommended Age: 11
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 7-8
Also: Sonlight Level D for Ages 8-11
1958 Winner:
Rifles for Watie
by Harold Keith
Recommended Age: 12
Also: Former Sonlight Books
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 7-8
1957 Winner:
Miracles on Maple Hill
by Virginia Sorensen
Recommended Age: 8
Also: Sonlight Level E for Ages 9-12
1956 Winner:
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
by Jean Lee Latham
Recommended Age: 10
Also: Sonlight Level D for Ages 8-11
1955 Winner:
The Wheel on the School
by Meindert DeJong
Recommended Age: 8
Also: Former Sonlight Books
Also: Memoria Press 3rd Grade Read-Aloud Program
1954 Winner:
…And Now Miguel
by Joseph Krumgold
Recommended Age: 8
1953 Winner:
Secret of the Andes
by Ann Nolan Clark
Recommended Age: 12
Also: Sonlight Level D for Ages 8-11
1952 Winner:
Ginger Pye
by Eleanor Estes
Recommended Age: 9
1951 Winner:
Amos Fortune, Free Man
by Elizabeth Yates
Recommended Age: 9
1950 Winner:
The Door in the Wall
by Marguerite de Angeli
Recommended Age: 10
Also: Sonlight Level C for Ages 7-9
1949 Winner:
King of the Wind
by Marguerite Henry
Recommended Age: 9
Also: Sonlight Level F for Ages 10-13
1948 Winner:
The Twenty-One Balloons
by William Pène du Bois
Recommended Age: 10
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 4-6
Also: Sonlight Level C for Ages 7-9
1947 Winner:
Miss Hickory
by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
Recommended Age: 9
1946 Winner:
Strawberry Girl
by Lois Lenski
Recommended Age: 10
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 4-6
Also: Sonlight Level C for Ages 7-9
1945 Winner:
Rabbit Hill
by Robert Lawson
Recommended Age: 9
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades K-3
1944 Winner:
Johnny Tremain
by Esther Forbes
Recommended Age: 10
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 7-8
Also: Sonlight Level D for Ages 8-11
1943 Winner:
Adam of the Road
by Elizabeth Janet Gray
Recommended Age: 9
1942 Winner:
The Matchlock Gun
by Walter Edmonds
Recommended Age: 8
Also: Former Sonlight Books
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 4-6
Also: Reading Roadmaps 2nd Grade
1941 Winner:
Call It Courage
by Armstrong Sperry
Recommended Age: 9
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 7-8
Also: Sonlight Level F for Ages 10-13
1940 Winner:
Daniel Boone
by James Daugherty
Recommended Age: 13
1939 Winner:
Thimble Summer
by Elizabeth Enright
Recommended Age: 12
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 4-6
Also: Sonlight Level E for Ages 9-12
1938 Winner:
The White Stag
by Kate Seredy
Recommended Age: 9
1937 Winner:
Roller Skates
by Ruth Sawyer
Recommended Age: 12
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 4-6
1936 Winner:
Caddie Woodlawn
by Carol Ryrie Brink
Recommended Age: 10
Also: Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Grades 4-6
Also: Sonlight Level E for Ages 9-12
1935 Winner:
Dobry
by Monica Shannon
Recommended Age: 11
1934 Winner:
Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women
by Cornelia Meigs
Recommended Age: 11
1933 Winner:
Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze
by Elizabeth Lewis
Recommended Age: 12
Also: Sonlight Level F for Ages 10-13
1932 Winner:
Waterless Mountain
by Laura Adams Armer
Recommended Age: 10
1931 Winner:
The Cat Who Went to Heaven
by Elizabeth Coatsworth
Recommended Age: 8
Also: Sonlight Level F for Ages 10-13
1930 Winner:
Hitty, Her First Hundred Years
by Rachel Field
Recommended Age: 9
1929 Winner:
The Trumpeter of Krakow
by Eric P. Kelly
Recommended Age: 11
1928 Winner:
Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon
by Dhan Gopal Mukerji
Recommended Age: 10
1927 Winner:
Smoky, the Cowhorse
by Will James
Recommended Age: 12
1926 Winner:
Shen of the Sea
by Arthur Bowie Chrisman
Recommended Age: 13
1925 Winner:
Tales from Silver Lands
by Charles Finger
Recommended Age: 11
1924 Winner:
The Dark Frigate
by Charles Hawes
Recommended Age: 13
1923 Winner:
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle
by Hugh Lofting
Recommended Age: 9
1922 Winner:
The Story of Mankind
by Hendrik Willem van Loon
Recommended Age: 10
Also: Former Sonlight Books