< 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!
All the Blues in the Sky
By: Renee Watson
Medal
Reviewed by: Lara Lleverino
Recommended age: 12+ for independent reading, younger for read aloud
All the Blues in the Sky is a clear-eyed, unflinching exploration of grief and loss. Renée Watson does not soften the blow with platitudes or tidy reassurances. Instead, she tells the truth. And yet, remarkably, she never leaves the reader stranded in despair. Hope is present here, not as a loud promise, but as a steady pulse.
Thirteen-year-old Sage is reeling from the sudden, devastating loss of her best friend, taken in a tragic accident on Sage’s thirteenth birthday. From that terrible hinge of time, the novel walks alongside Sage as she learns what life looks like after the unthinkable. Watson invites the reader into the long, uneven work of mourning: the confusion, the anger, the guilt, and the quiet moments when grief catches you off guard like a wave you didn’t see coming.
What is most striking about this book is the voice Watson chooses. While the subject matter is heavy, the story is not bleak. There is a gentleness in the telling, a deliberate attention to the ways healing often comes through other people. Rather than reinforcing the modern impulse toward isolation, the novel insists on the necessity of community. Sage is not expected to carry her sorrow alone, and the story quietly resists the idea that pain is incomprehensible and therefore must be borne in silence.
Sage’s life is not, and will not be, easy. The loss of her best friend is only the first of several hardships she will face. Yet this coming-of-age story is ultimately one of growth and hope. Through her grief, Sage begins to understand something profound: life is sacred, even when it is painful, and perhaps especially then.
All the Blues in the Sky is a compassionate, honest novel that trusts young readers with hard truths while offering them something essential in return. It is a book that acknowledges the depth of sorrow and still dares to believe in the possibility of light.
The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli
By: Karina Yan Glaser
Honor
Reviewed by: Sherry Early
Recommended age: Ages 10-15
Two places, two times, and two main characters. It could be confusing, but author Karina Van Glaser does a masterful job of telling and intertwining the stories of two children, Han Yu and Luli Lee, both of whom are trying to help their families through a hard time. Han Yu must travel the trade routes (Silk Road) in 731 AD to earn money for his quarantined family and find the healing grasses that might heal his little sister from her life-threatening illness. Luli’s family is about to lose the restaurant that is their dream and livelihood in New York City as the Great Depression squeezes all businesses in its financial collapse.
The story has a slight amount of “magical realism”, as a secretive, ghostly, guardian tiger appears and disappears, seeming to protect Han Yu on his journey. (For me, the tiger is reminiscent of the figure of Aslan in the Narnia books, but that may be my own eccentric reading.) For the most part, however, the stories are engaging, well written, and well researched straight historical fiction. The histories of Han Yu and Luli intersect in a believable way, and the story becomes a sort of ode to Chinese food, especially dim sum, Chinese art, Chinese history, and Chinese culture.
Read full review
A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez
By: Maria Dolores Aguila
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Twelve-year-old Roberto Alvarez is the youngest of his siblings, born on United States soil. He’s el futuro, their dream for a life away from the fire of the Mexican Revolution
Moved by anti-immigrant and anti-Mexican propaganda, the Lemon Grove school board and chamber of commerce create a separate “Americanization” school for the Mexican children attending the Lemon Grove Grammar School. But the new Olive Street School is an old barn retrofitted for the children forced to attend a segregated school.
Amid threats of deportation, the Comité de Vecinos risk everything to stand their ground and, with the support of the Mexican Consulate, choose Roberto as the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the school board in this vivid and uplifting novel in verse based on true events.
From the publisher
★
REVIEW TEAM FAVORITE
The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story
By: Daniel Nayri
Honor
Reviewed by: Lara Lleverino
Also read and recommended by: Deanna Knoll, Sherry Early
This book stopped me in my tracks! It is a quick read, I borrowed it on my Libby app and the app tells me I read it in 2.5 hours, but I will be thinking about this books for much much longer than that! I am always looking for books that showcase a coming of age character that takes on the difficulties of life with resilience. There is something I have not yet been able to define about why some people can face trauma and horrors and come out on the other side having made the world a better place inspite of their circumstances. This book tells such a story. In the book Babak is surrounded with reasons to cry out against injustice and shake his fist at God, fate, or the world. His parents are dead. He is responsible for his younger sister. His country has been invaded by superpowers after declaring neutrality in a war they wanted no part in. And yet, Babak looks for the good. He extends mercy. He holds on to his humanity while reminding those around him, who are older and have more power, to act with empathy instead of out of fear or desperation. I was so inspired by this short tale. I am adding it to my MUST READ list for middle grade readers.
The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest
By: Aubrey Hartman
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Clare is the undead fox of Deadwood Forest. Here, leaves grow in a perpetual state of fall: not quite dead, but not quite alive…just like Clare. Long ago, he was struck by a car, and, hovering between life and death, he was given the choice to either cross into the Afterlife or become an Usher of wandering souls. Clare chose the latter: stepping into a solitary life of helping souls meet their destiny.
Clare’s quiet and predictable days are met with upheaval when a badger soul named Gingersnipes knocks on his door. Despite Clare’s efforts to usher her into the Afterlife, the badger is unable to find her way out of Deadwood. This is unprecedented. Baffling. A disturbing mystery which threatens the delicate balance of the living and the dead. Clare seeks the help of Hesterfowl—the visionary grouse who recently foretold of turmoil in Deadwood. But Hesterfowl divulges a shocking revelation about the badger that leaves Clare devastated, outraged, and determined to do anything to change their fate.
From the publisher
