< 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 Grey King
By: Susan Cooper
Illustrated by: Michael Heslop
Medal Winner
NOT REVIEWED
There is an old tradition in North Wales that, within a certain hill, a harp of gold will be found by a boy followed by a white dog with silver eyes —a dog who can see the wind. Will Stanton knew nothing of this when he came to Wales, just before Hallowe'en, from his English home for convalescence after a severe illness. But when he met a strange boy named Bran and Bran's white dog Cafall, memory awoke in him. For Will himself was no ordinary boy, but the last-born of the Old Ones, servants of the Light, immortals dedicated to saving the world from domination by the force of evil which calls itself the Dark. And it is Will's long-appointed quest, as he now learns, to wake— with the sound of the lost golden harp—the six sleepers who must be roused from their long rest in the ancient Welsh hills to make ready for the last dreadful battle between the Dark and the Light.
In this, fourth of the five books in her brilliant sequence, THE DARK IS RISING, Susan Cooper, who is recognized on both sides of the Atlantic as a writer with extraordinary gifts, once again has created with great artistry and compelling narrative sweep a wholly believable world—both present and past—that catches up the reader and carries him forward on a wave of ever-mounting excitement. This is a glorious combination of high achievement and high adventure.
From the dust jacket
Dragonwings
By: Laurence Yep
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Moon Shadow was eight when he sailed from China to join his father Windrider in America. Windrider lived in San Francisco's Chinatown and worked in a laundry. Moon Shadow had never seen him.
But he soon loved and respected this father, a man of genius, a man with a fabulous dream. And with Moon Shadow's help, Windrider was willing to endure the mockery of the other Chinese, the poverty, and the longing for his wife and his own country to make his dream come true.
Inspired by the account of a Chinese immigrant who made a flying machine in 1909, Laurence Yep's historical novel beautifully portrays the rich traditions of the Chinese community as it made its way in a hostile new world.
From the dust jacket
The Hundred Penny Box
By: Sharon Bell Mathis
Illustrated by: Leo & Diane Dillon
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Michael's Great-great-aunt Dew was singing her long song again. She was a hundred years old, and she kept an old box in her room filled with pennies, one for each birthday. Michael loved to sit at her feet and count out the pennies while Aunt Dew told the story behind each one.
"One," Michael said.
"Eighteen and seventy-four," Aunt Dew answered. "Year I was born. Slavery over. Black men in Congress running things. It was the Reconstruction."
Michael's mother wanted to throw out the old box— "always under foot," she explained in exasperation — and give Aunt Dew a new one. But Aunt Dew said, "Anybody takes my hundred penny box, takes me."
Michael tried to help save the hundred penny box, but it wasn't easy. Aunt Dew sometimes didn't know who he was, and sometimes she wouldn't answer him because she was singing her long song. In the end, Michael only knew he loved her and wanted to be close to her. And that was what Aunt Dew wanted, too.
This remarkable story of the love between a very old woman and a young boy is warm, sympathetic, and very touching.
From the dust jacket
