< 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!
A Wrinkle in Time
By: Madeleine L'Engle
Medal Winner
NOT REVIEWED
It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother, Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.
"Wild nights are my glory," the unearthly stranger told them. "I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I'll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract."
A tesseract (in case the reader doesn't know) is a wrinkle in time. To tell more would rob the reader of the enjoyment of Miss L'Engle's unusual book. A Wrinkle in Time is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe (athlete, student, and one of the most popular boys in high school). They are in search of Meg's father, a scientist who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government on the tesseract problem.
Madeleine L'Engle is a newcomer to the Ariel list, but not to the children's book field. And Both Were Young was listed by the New York Times as one of the ten best books of the year, and Meet the Austins appears on the American Library Association list of Notable Children's Books of 1960. Miss L'Engle, her husband, Hugh Franklin, and their three children live in New York City.
From the dust jacket
Men of Athens
By: Olivia Coolidge
Illustrated by: Milton Johnson
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Once again, Olivia Coolidge puts flesh and blood on the bones of history. In these short stories that frame the Golden Age of Athens she spreads before the reader a dramatic, highly colored panorama of the times and men who made the glory of Athens' Golden Age.
Here is the barbaric splendor of the Persian court at Sardis; a stirring view of the battle of Salamis; here is Themistocles, the ambassador from Athens, cleverly outmaneuvering the smug and simple Spartans; Criton, the athlete, defending the honor of his city at the Olympic games; the bustle of the marketplace where even a potter strives for an excellence worthy of his city.
Finally, after the flashing brilliance of Athens at its height of power, there is a moving account of the day that Socrates is condemned to death, a verdict that seems to spell the death of Athens itself.
As with the author's Roman People, which Library Journal called "absolutely essential," the book makes excellent reading just as a collection of fine and exciting stories; at the same time it will make the Athenian century a living reality and give the reader a sense of participation in the Golden Age.
From the dust jacket
Thistle and Thyme: Tales and Legends from Scotland
By: Sorche Nic Leodhas
Illustrated by: Evaline Ness
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
HEATHER AND BROOM, the first collection of Scottish folk tales by Sorche Nic Leodhas—named "A Notable Book of 1960" by the American Library Association—has already won its way into the hearts of countless young readers.
Now the author has compiled a companion volume, bringing together still more of these entrancing fables: mystic legends of medieval origin; fast, rollicking seanachie stories, related by wandering storytellers; and sgeulachdan, or tales told at highland gatherings by professional entertainers who made up their plots as they went along. The last are particularly fascinating, since they were seldom written down—just passed along by word of mouth.
Through all the stories run the magic, mystery, wonderment, and gentle humor that stir the imagination of the young, Miss Nic Leodhas, who grew up listening to Scottish tales, has faithfully captured the swing and rhythm of the original Gaelic.
Illustrated with Evaline Ness’s delightful woodcuts, THISTLE AND THYME is a handsome and unusual book that young people will want to read, re-read, an cherish all their lives.
From the dust jacket
