< 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!
★
REVIEW TEAM FAVORITE
The Bronze Bow
By: Elizabeth George Speare
Medal Winner
Reviewed by: Deanna Knoll
Recommended age: 10+
Also read and recommended by: Christine Kallner, Diane Pendergraft, Sandy Hall, Sara Masarik, Sherry Early
This book was added to my To Be Read stack reluctantly. I decided to read all of Elizabeth George Speare's books and this one just kept moving down the list because of my aversion to Biblical historical fiction (I don't know why...maybe I should explore this someday!). Wow, was I wrong. After the first few pages, I was hooked. Telling the story of Daniel Bar-Jamin and his sister as he resists the Roman control of their lives. The author deftly draws back the curtain on life during Roman occupation as Daniel, an orphan, joins an outlaw gang determined to chase out the intruders for good. Just as hate is the Achille's heel of every Jedi in the Star Wars movies, it fuels most of Daniel's thoughts and actions. Only when he meets Jesus, can that hatred be exchanged for peace in his heart.
While this story is a bit gut-wrenching, it is thought provoking and worthwhile reading for anyone who may have a seed of hate hiding somewhere deep down.
Belling the Tiger
By: Mary Stolz
Illustrated by: Beni Montresor
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Portman, the fierce chief mouse, decided that Siri, the cat, must be belled. All the mice in the house on the waterfront agreed with him — everyone always agreed with Portman. But when Asa and Rambo, the smallest and least important mice, were chosen to bell Siri, Portman’s power, though he didn’t know it, was at an end.
To bell a cat, one must have a collar with a bell on it. After Asa and Rambo finally found a suitable collar, a waterfront cat found them. When they stopped running, the two little mice were on a large ship, floating slowly but steadily away from their problems. But anything can happen on a long ocean voyage — and in this case, it did.
Mary Stolz, well known for her books for teen-agers, has written an exhilarating story for younger readers to which Beni Montresor’s charmingly detailed pictures add further sparkle.
From the dust jacket
Frontier Living
By: Edwin Tunis
Illustrated by: Edwin Tunis
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Every significant aspect of daily life on the American frontier is vividly brought to life in text and more than 200 drawings in this companion book to the author's Colonial Living. With all the clarity, vigor and accuracy of a true master craftsman, Mr. Tunis describes the character and ways of life of the men and womn who were the harsh cutting edge of our civilization: their dwellings, clothing, food, furniture, household articles; their hunting, farming, schooling, transportation, government; their amusements, susperstitions, and religion.
In his foreward, the author writes: "We all know that the hardy cowhand...is the world-wide symbol of the American Frontier, and many of us asume that the frontier began at Dodge City, Kansas. It actually started quite a long way east of the cow country, and there was a lot more to frontier living than running gun fights."
So from its very beginning during Revolutionary times, we follow the tide of white men which ran ever westward across our continent for almost two centuries—from the first push away from seaboard colonies inland to the Piedmont, through the wilderness into the Southern valleys and over the Appalachians, beyond the Mississippi to the fertile prairies and the Southwest, and finally over mountain trails to the Far West. Here is the forest frontiersman in his log cabin, the ranchero in his casa, the sodbuster in his prairie sod house. Here, too, is the keelboatman, the cotton farmer, the fur trader, the mountain man, the forty-niner, the cowhand—each helping to shape a new and distinctive way of life from untamed country. The flintlock gun, the Kentucky rifle, the freight and Conestoga wagons, the stage coach, the Ohio flatboat, the first steamboat and steam railroad, are all reconstructed in exact detail.
Enlightening and highly entertaining, this authentic re-creation of the American frontier, seen in relation to its historical perspective by a distinguished author and artist, is a major contribution toward an understanding of the American character.
From the dust jacket
★
REVIEW TEAM FAVORITE
The Golden Goblet
By: Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Illustrated by: Richard M. Powers
Honor
Reviewed by: Deanna Knoll
Recommended age: 10+
Also read and recommended by: Sandy Hall, Sarah Kim
Eloise Jarvis McGraw is a favorite author of mine, and this book checks all the boxes for a great book: full of adventure, intrigue, a bit of mystery, strong teenage characters with real moral dilemmas, the importance of hard work, dreaming big dreams, and a good vs. evil theme.
Set in ancient Egypt, the author crafts an authentic tale about a young boy, Ranofer, apprenticed to a greedy, harsh, unkind stonecutter and the drama that entails when he discovers the theft of a valuable golden goblet.
This is a book that will be riveting to all ages and is a wonderful addition to a study of ancient Egypt.
