< 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!
Bridge to Terabithia
By: Katherine Paterson
Illustrated by: Donna Diamond
Medal Winner
NOT REVIEWED
Jess Aarons had to be the fastest runner at Lark Creek Elementary School, the best, but when he was challenged by Leslie Burke, a girl, that was just the beginning of a new season in Jess's life. Leslie and her parents were newcomers to the rural-community where Jess lived, and were thought to be a bit odd, for they didn't even own a TV, though their house was filled with books. Somewhat to Jess's surprise, he and Leslie became friends, and the worlds of imagination and learning that she opened to him changed him forever. It was Leslie's idea to create Terabithia, their secret kingdom in the woods where they reigned supreme. There no enemy—not their teacher Monster Mouth Myers, their schoolmates Gary Fulcher and Janice Avery, Jess's four sisters, or even Jess's own fears and Leslie's imaginary foes could defeat them. The legacy that Leslie finally brought to Jess enabled him to cope with the unexpected tragedy that touched them all.
From the dust jacket
Anpao: An American Indian Odyssey
By: Jamake Highwater
Illustrated by: Fritz Scholder
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Be silent! Old Wasicong is about to tell the tale of Anpao.
Anpao... the Dawn... the brave young man whose love for the beautiful Ko-komik-e-is is so great that in her name he undertakes a long and dangerous quest.
He journeys among the people and the powers across the face of the American Indian's ancient world and through depths of space and time. He travels over the deserts, mountains, and prairies that belonged to his grandfathers, and on. . . into the realm of the Drowned Ones.
Follow Anpao, for he carries with him the rich heritage of native Americans. His adventures are drawn from tales that have been passed down through generations of Great Plains and Southwest people, and include stories of their encounters with the white man and his guns, horses, and diseases.
Jamake Highwater has woven together old and new in the classic tradition of the storyteller to convey the full texture of Indian sensibility. Anpao relates to the whole of existence and to the unity of all things.
Be silent! Old Wasicong speaks . . .
From the dust jacket
★
REVIEW TEAM FAVORITE
Ramona and Her Father
By: Beverly Cleary
Illustrated by: Alan Tiegreen
Honor
Reviewed by: Sara Masarik
Also read and recommended by: Sandy Hall, Sara Masarik, Sherry Early, Terri Shown
Cleary writes children as they are. Warts and all. But, as Diane so often says about Gary D. Schmidt, she does not leave them there. The whole point of the is growing up. When the series opens, Ramona is just four years old. As she says in Ramona and Her Father (several years later) – she doesn’t try to annoy everyone. Just Beezus. According to Ramona, sometimes it is fun to annoy Beezus. But, generally, she isn’t trying to annoy everyone else. She is just trying to grow up, and as she says, no matter how old she gets, she can never catch up to Beezus or Henry or anyone else bigger than she is. Ramona has a very good heart, and she is trying to figure out who she is and who she is becoming. She makes a lot of mistakes, but she does learn from them.
I think that any child will find some of Ramona’s experiences relatable and endearing. I especially think that second and later-born siblings will find her to be an ally in the never-ending struggle of playing catchup to older siblings – especially when those older siblings are “going through a trying time,” as Beezus says in Ramona and Her Father.
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