< 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!
M. C. Higgins, the Great
By: Virginia Hamilton
Medal Winner
NOT REVIEWED
Mayo Cornelius Higgins sits on his gleaming, forty-foot pole, towering over his home on Sarah's Mountain. Stretched before him are rolling hills and shady valleys. But behind him lie the wounds of strip mining, a spoil heap oozing downward, endangering his home. High at the top his steel pole, M.C. dreams of escape for himself and his family.
It is from this forty-foot height, also, that he discovers two strangers who have entered the hills and are making their way toward Sarah's Mountain. One is the "dude," who M.C. imagines will make his mother a singing star and help them all to get away from the menacing soil heap. The other is Lurhetta, a young wanderer, through whose example M.C. learns that both choice and action lie within his power.
Past and present, daydream and reality meet in inevitable conflict. And M.C. must come to terms with family and heritage and his own desires. In a sudden, dramatic climax, he realizes that safety for himself and his family will never be found in fleeing the hills.
Virginia Hamilton has created a world that is strange, haunting and utterly believable and peopled it with a group of memorable characters. M.C. Higgins, the Great is a powerful, contemporary novel and a major contribution to fiction for young readers.
From the dust jacket
Figgs & Phantoms
By: Ellen Raskin
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Mona was miserable. So would you be (maybe) if the Figgs in your family consisted of:
- Sister Figg Newton, Tap Dancer and Baton Twirler (mother)
- Truman, the Human Pretzel (uncle)
- Romulus, the Walking Book of Knowledge
- & Remus, the Talking Adding Machine (uncles)
- Kadota and his Nine Performing Kanines (uncle & ?)
Not to mention Auntie Gracie Jo, the dog-catcher, and her son, Fido the Second.
The only person Mona loved and respected was her Uncle Florence, the book dealer, and even he made her miserable because of her constant fear that he would find his way to Capri, the Figg Family heaven, and leave her behind.
But, in this book (as Mona had to learn), things were seldom what they seem, even Figgs. Even the book itself, which may be a book about books or a book about dreams; a mysterious romance or a romantic mystery.
*If you want to read it as a mystery, a clue is: the bald spot.
**Read it.
From the dust jacket
My Brother Sam is Dead
By: James Lincoln Collier & Christopher Collier
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
"We've beaten the British in Massachusetts! The Minutemen hid in the fields along the roads and massacred them all the way back to Boston!"
When Tim's brother Sam burst in with the exciting news, everyone in the little crossroads tavern sat silent and shocked. Most people in that part of Connecticut were either Tories or people who thought the colonies had some legitimate complaints against England, but nothing serious enough to shed blood over.
Tim's father and mother, who ran the tavern, felt the same way. But not Sam. At sixteen, just a few years older than Tim, he had a mind of his own. Sam was convinced that the rebel cause was just — and worth fighting for.
Tim was eager to hear more about what had happened, but he dreaded what he knew would be a bad argument between Sam and his father. They had had frequent stormy quarrels in the past, and twice Sam had run away. Things had always cleared up after a while, but this time Tim wondered if there was any way their disagreement would ever be settled.
A few days later, when Sam stole his father's gun and, despite Tim's efforts to stop him, went off to fight the British, Tim's fears were confirmed.
Like all rebellions, the Revolutionary War was a conflict without clearcut divisions of territory or loyalties. It eddied against, and sometimes engulfed, the lives of ordinary people in a haphazard way. Those who were killed were often the victims of chance and geography.
What happens later to Sam and Tim and their mother and father, as even the peaceful Tory town of Redding Ridge is caught up in the bitter turmoil, is a suspenseful, moving tale.
From the dust jacket
The Perilous Gard
By: Elizabeth Marie Pope
Illustrated by: Richard Cuffari
Honor
Reviewed by: Sherry Early
Recommended age: Age 13 and up
The story takes place at the end of the reign of Queen Mary I, aka “Bloody Mary.” Kate and her impulsive, lovable sister Alicia are ladies-in-waiting to the Princess Elizabeth, in exile from court at the drafty manor of Hatfield. When Alicia sends a letter of complaint to the Queen, Kate gets the blame, and she is banished to a manor house called The Perilous Gard in Derbyshire to live out her days in disgrace and under close guard. There, Kate meets the master of the castle/manor, Sir Geoffrey Heron and his strange, silent younger brother, Christopher. She also meets a strange lady dressed in green and hears many odd stories about the Elvenwood that surrounds Perilous Gard as well as the nearby Holy Well that draws pilgrims from near and far in search of healing and comfort.
I was especially intrigued by the hints and uses of Christian truth in this fantasy novel. (It does turn into a fantasy novel, as Kate encounters the reality of the Fairies who are behind all the stories she hears about strange, pagan rituals and kidnappings that have characterized Elvenwood.) The central conflict in the novel is between Paganism and the Fair Folk’s thirst for magical power versus the Christian ideals of love and service and simple living. There is also a conflict within Kate herself as she sees herself as clumsy, unlovely and unlovable, but learns to see herself in a new light, giving herself in selfless service to another.
Read full review
Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe
By: Bette Greene
Illustrated by: Charles Lilly
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Philip Hall is the cutest, smartest boy in the class, and Beth Lambert loves him. The fact that he beats her in classwork, conniving, and just about everything else doesn’t particularly bother Beth at first. Then she realizes that Philip might be best in everything because she's letting him beat her.
In this novel set in rural Arkansas, Bette Greene humorously relates the progression of an intelligent and vivacious eleven year old's first crush. Charles Lilly's lively illustrations add to the fun.
From the dust jacket
