Newbery Medal Challenge
I’ve decided to join the Newbery Medal Challenge hosted by La La in the Library. The goal is to read all the Newbery Medal winners. There are currently 96 books that have won the award, and of course, a new one will be added each year. I have already read 17 of them. Most I read as a child or young adult, and a few of those are favorites that still enjoy. Others I discovered as an adult. Beyond those 17, there are two or three others I think I might have read as a child, but can’t remember for certain.
It’s an open-ended challenge, meaning there’s no time limit. That’s one of the things that appeals to me. I don’t want the pressure of trying to read them all in one year! Frankly, if I can fit in four or five each year, I’ll be happy. And I’m not going to cry if I don’t get them all read; reading more of them is a reward in itself.
Here’s a list of all the Newbery Medal winners so far. The titles in boldface are the ones I’ve read before.
Newbery Medal Books
2017: The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
2016: Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña
2015: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
2014: Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
2013: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
2012: Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
2011: Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
2010: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
2009: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
2008: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! by L.A. Schlitz
2007: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron
2006: Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
2005: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
2004: The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
2003: Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi
2002: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
2001: A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck
2000: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
1999: Holes by Louis Sachar
1998: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
1997: The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg
1996: The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman
1995: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
1994: The Giver by Lois Lowry
1993: Missing May by Cynthia Rylant
1992: Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
1991: Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
1990: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
1989: Joyful Noise 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
1985: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
1984: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
1983: Dicey’s Song by Cynthia Voigt
1982: A Visit to William Blake’s Inn by Nancy Willard
1981: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
1980: A Gathering of Days by Joan W. Blos
1979: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
1978: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
1977: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by M.D. Taylor
1976: The Grey King by Susan Cooper
1975: M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton
1974: The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox
1973: Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
1972: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by R.C. O’Brien
1971: Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars
1970: Sounder by William H. Armstrong
1969: The High King by Lloyd Alexander
1968: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L.Konigsburg
1967: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt
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
1958: Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith
1957: Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen
1956: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
1955: The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong
1954: …And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold
1953: Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark
1952: Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes
1951: Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates
1950: The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli
1949: King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry
1948: The Twenty-One Balloons by W. Pène du Bois
1947: Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
1946: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
1945: Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
1944: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
1943: Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray
1942: The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds
1941: Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry
1940: Daniel Boone by James Daugherty
1939: Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright
1938: The White Stag by Kate Seredy
1937: Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer
1936: Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
1935: Dobry by Monica Shannon
1934: Invincible Louisa by Cornelia Meigsl
1933: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by E. Lewis
1932: Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer
1931: The Cat Who Went to Heaven by E. Coatsworth
1930: Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field
1929: The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly
1928: Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by D.G. Mukerji
1927: Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James
1926: Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman
1925: Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger
1924: The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes
1923: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
1922: The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon
Lark
That’s a challenging challenge. 🙂 I have a love/hate relationship with Newbery winners: I love some of them, and think others are highly over-rated! But at least most should still be in print and easy to find. Good luck with this one!
Lark recently posted…The Language of Sand
Lark_Bookwyrm
I totally agree with you about the quality variability. And I’m OK with not finishing all of them, in the end, if there are some I can’t stand… but it’s a good way to challenge myself to read more really good children’s literature.
Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library
What a fun challenge! I haven’t read nearly as many Newberry winners as I thought I have but all the ones I’ve read (most of the ones you’ve read) I really enjoyed. I had forgotten all about Hitty, Her First Hundred Years until I saw it on the list but I loved that book.
Lark_Bookwyrm
I loved Hitty, and also several others: The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Up a Road Slowly, and Island of the Blue Dolphins. And of course, A Wrinkle in Time, The High King, and The Grey King. My mom loved Rabbit Hill, and read it to me—one of the few books I remember her reading to me other than Little Women. Some of the later ones I read when Robin discovered them, or was assigned to read them.
Stephanie@Fairday's Blog
I have read 33 of these! Actually a few more, but I am not counting the ones I read in elementary school and don’t remember vert clearly. I also notice that a lot of of the books on this list were recently weeded from my school library (weeded if they hadn’t been checked out in the past 20 years). I am hoping you can find most of these! I may set this goal too- since I have a manageable number to read to finish the list. 🙂
Good luck!
Stephanie@Fairday’s Blog recently posted…Dreams in the Wind
Lark_Bookwyrm
Oh, well done! I did count the ones I read in elementary school and don’t remember too clearly (Sounder *cough cough*), because they were sad and I may not re-read them for that reason. (If all I remember is that it was sad, it didn’t enthrall me enough to reread it. There are others I’ve reread a number of times over the years.)