< 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 Voyages of Doctor Dolittle
By: Hugh Lofting
Medal Winner
NOT REVIEWED
It is Tommy Stubbins, the cobbler's son, who tells this story of Doctor Dolittle's wonderful voyage to Spidermonkey Island. Tommy Stubbins was a little boy who wanted to be a naturalist when he grew up.
One day he got acquainted with Doctor Dolittle, and after that his dreams began to come true; for that kindly little man promised to teach him all he knew about animals and their languages, and to take him along on his next voyage of discovery. They decided where to go by opening the atlas with their eyes shut and touching the page with a pencil.
All in all it was perhaps the most amazing voyage that has ever been heard of. The excitement began with four stowaways (one of them the cat's-meat-man!); then came the Doctor's discovery of the key to the language of the shellfish, through his meeting with a Fidgit. After that, evens crowd thick and fast: the stop at a Spanish island where the Doctor creates a sensation as matador at a bullfight; the shipwreck; the landing on a Floating Island; and all the adventures there till the Doctor is crowned king by the devoted natives and has to be got away home to Puddleby by stealth.
From the dust jacket of a later printing
