< Newbery Medal and Honor Books
Given the Newbery Award's prestige it would be easy to assume that the award winners are all excellent books for children. The Biblioguides Team has not found this to be the case. We always want to provide parents with the information they need to make the best book decisions for their families. With that goal in mind, we've put together a complete list of all medal winners and honor books since inception, and the Biblioguides Review Team is working together to read our way through the winners and to provide a review. Where we have not yet reviewed a book, a description directly from the dust jacket or from the publisher has been provided. In some cases, we have shared a brief synopsis from The Newbery and Caldecott Awards: A Guide to the Medal and Honor Books (1999).
Reviews are the thoughts and opinions of the particular reviewer and do not necessarily represent all members of the team. Reviews will continue to be added as the team reads more of the Newbery books. We hope this list will help you familiarize yourself with the various winners and provide the necessary information to determine which books would be a good fit for your family!
The View from Saturday
By: E.L. Konigsburg
Medal Winner
NOT REVIEWED
From the Newbery Medal–winning author of the beloved classic From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler comes four jewel-like short stories—one for each of the team members of an Academic Bowl team—that ask questions and demonstrate surprising answers.
How had Mrs. Olinski chosen her sixth-grade Academic Bowl team? She had a number of answers. But were any of them true? How had she really chosen Noah and Nadia and Ethan and Julian? And why did they make such a good team?
It was a surprise to a lot of people when Mrs. Olinski’s team won the sixth-grade Academic Bowl contest at Epiphany Middle School. It was an even bigger surprise when they beat the seventh grade and the eighth grade, too. And when they went on to even greater victories, everyone began to ask: How did it happen?
It happened at least partly because Noah had been the best man (quite by accident) at the wedding of Ethan’s grandmother and Nadia’s grandfather. It happened because Nadia discovered that she could not let a lot of baby turtles die. It happened when Ethan could not let Julian face disaster alone. And it happened because Julian valued something important in himself and saw in the other three something he also valued.
Mrs. Olinski, returning to teaching after having been injured in an automobile accident, found that her Academic Bowl team became her answer to finding confidence and success. What she did not know, at least at first, was that her team knew more than she did the answer to why they had been chosen.
From the publisher
Belle Prater's Boy
By: Ruth White
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Around 5:00 a.m. on a warm Sunday morning on October 1953, my Aunt Belle left her bed and vanished from the face of the earth.
Everyone in Coal Station, Virginia, has a theory about what happened to Belle Prater, but twelve-year-old Gypsy wants the facts, and when her cousin Woodrow, Aunt Belle's son moves next door, she has her chance. Woodrow isn't as forthcoming as Gypsy hopes, yet he becomes more than just a curiosity to her—during their sixth-grade year she finds that they have enough in common to be best friends. Even so, Gypsy is puzzled by Woodrow's calm acceptance of his mother's disappearance, especially since she herself has never gotten over her father's death. When Woodrow finally reveals that he's been keeping a secret about his mother, Gypsy begins to understand that there are different ways of finding the strength to face the truth, no matter how painful it is.
From the publisher
A Girl Named Disaster
By: Nancy Farmer
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
A Girl Named Disaster is the humorous and heart wrenching story of a young girl who discovers her own courage and strength when she makes the dangerous journey from Mozambique to Zimbabwe. Nhamo is an 11-year-old Shona girl living in Mozambique in 1981. After the death of her mother, Nhamo is left a virtual slave in her small African village. Upon learning that before her 12th birthday she must marry a cruel man with three other wives, Nhamo desperately decides to run away. What was supposed to have been a short boat trip across the border into Zimbabwe, where she hoped to find her father, turns into an adventure filled with challenges and danger that lasts a year.
From the publisher
Moorchild
By: Eloise McGraw
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Half moorfolk and half human, and unable to shape-shift or disappear at will, Moql threatens the safety of the Band. So the Folk banish her and send her to live among humans as a changeling. Named Saaski by the couple for whose real baby she was swapped, she grows up taunted and feared by the villagers for being different, and is comfortable only on the moor, playing strange music on her bagpipes.
As Saaski grows up, memories from her forgotten past with the Folks slowly emerge. But so do emotions from her human side, and she begins to realize the terrible wrong the Folk have done to the humans she calls Da and Mumma. She is determined to restore their child to them, even if it means a dangerous return to the world that has already rejected her once.
From the publisher
★
REVIEW TEAM FAVORITE
The Thief
By: Megan Whalen Turner
Honor
Reviewed by: Sara Masarik
Recommended age: 12+
Also read and recommended by: Lara Lleverino, Sherry Early
For hundreds of generations, the ruler of Eddis has been chosen by the gods. Tradition teaches that the gods imbued a stone with spiritual power to confer royal authority on the holder. In each generation, the leader of Eddis has employed a royal thief to steal any number of items. But, most significantly, each leader must first have their thief steal the stone, Hamiathes's Gift. Only a thief beloved by the gods Eugendies and Moira can successfully find and steal the Gift. And so, Sounis decides that he will find such a Thief and have him steal the Gift and award it to Sounis thus forcing the two kingdoms to unite.
The story is exciting, creative, and intellectually satisfying. Every time I read it, I cannot help but feel like I am re-entering C. S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces as the relationship with the gods, the Mediterranean feel, and the political aspects with female queens are also similar. I enjoy this book immensely each time I read it. And, in fact, this book improves with each re–read. It is rich and deep.
Read our full review for several cautions.
Read full review