Newbery Medal Books Reading List
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When choosing books for my kids to read, I love to look through the award winning books like the Newbery Medal and Caldecott Medal books.   I have read many of the books on these lists over the years and have been pleased with the selections.  Many of them are now considered great classics. You can find the lists of books that have won these awards on the American Library Association’s website.
Today’s post is focused on the Newbery Medal Books. We have read a lot of these in our homeschool, and many of them are on our list to read this year as well.  Rather than focus on one book this time, I decided instead to create a Newbery Medal Books Reading List.  I want to use this to check them off as we read them. Hopefully this will inspire us to read more of them and to have a better idea of some good books to look for at the library.
I was also curious to know how the books are chosen and found the criteria on the ALA website. The medals are awarded annually to the most distinguished contribution to American Literature for children published by an American publisher in the U.S. in English. They define distinguished as excellent in quality, individually distinct, and marked by excellence in quality.
They also choose honor books most of the time. These are definitely great ones to consider reading as well! Â Many of them I was familiar with, too.
They choose a committee each year and those names are listed. The committee members read all of the eligible books throughout the year, discuss them, then cast ballots twice to choose the Newbery Medal winner.
My Newbery Medal Books Reading List is from the present year all the way back to the first year which was 1922. Â However, I wanted to share the last 20 years with you here as well for you to see. You may be surprised to know that you have heard of or read some of these already!
Love audio books like us? Â Many of these are available on Audible!
Newbery Medal Book List
- 2023- Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
- 2022- The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera
- 2021- When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
- 2020- New Kid by Jerry Craft
- 2019- Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina
- 2018- Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly
- 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: The Illuminated Adventures 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! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy 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 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
