< 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!
Jacob Have I Loved
By: Katherine Paterson
Medal Winner
NOT REVIEWED
"Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated....” With her grandmother’s taunt, Louise knew that she, like the biblical Esau, was the despised elder twin. Caroline, her selfish younger sister, was the one everyone loved.
Growing up on a tiny Chesapeake Bay island in the early 1940s, angry Louise reveals how Caroline robbed her of everything; her hopes for schooling, her friends, her mother, even her name. While everyone pampered Caroline, Wheeze (her sister’s name for her) began to learn the ways of the watermen and the secrets of the island, especially of old Captain Wallace, who had mysteriously returned after fifty years. The war unexpectedly gave this independent girl a chance to fulfill her childish dream to work as a waterman alongside her father. But the dream did not satisfy the woman she was becoming. Alone and unsure, Louise began to fight her way to a place where Caroline could not reach.
Renowned author Katherine Paterson here chooses a little-known area off the Maryland shore as her setting for a fresh telling of the ancient story of an elder twin’s lost birthright.
From the dust jacket
The Fledgling
By: Jane Langton
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Georgie Hall had just slid off the back of the Goose Prince and was soaring through the night above Walden Pond. It all started when Georgie, hardly more than a wisp of thistledown, discovered she could jump down twelve steps in two big graceful bounds. Next, to her great delight, she learned that jumping from the porch and floating as high as the rooftop was possible too. So when the mysterious Canada goose came to her window one night it seemed only natural to climb onto his back and go off with him to learn how to really fly.
But no one wants Georgie to fly. No one understands her yearning to glide in lofty circles under the autumn moon. Not Uncle Freddy, not her older cousins Eleanor and Eddy, not her pompous interfering neighbors Mr. Preek and Miss Prawn. They try everything to stop her. They board up her windows and conspire never to leave her alone for a minute. And worst of all, in their eyes her lovely Goose Prince is a menace that must be stopped.
Jane Langton spins a marvelous fantasy that will delight all who dream that someday, somehow, we will magically find ourselves aloft and suddenly able to flyyyyyyyyyyy!
From the dust jacket
A Ring of Endless Light
By: Madeleine L'Engle
Honor
Reviewed by: Sherry Early
Recommended age: 15+
I love Madeleine L’Engle's series of Austin family novels, and Ring of Endless Light is one of my favorites. The Austin family is spending the summer with Vicky’s grandfather who is dying. As Vicky writes her poetry and deals with her grief over her grandfather, she also finds friendship and maybe even romance with three very different boys: Zachary, the wild romantic; Leo, an old friend; and Adam, the dolphin researcher.
The book is for young adults, not younger children, and pushes to the very edge of the age criteria for the Newbery Honor (age 14), since it deals with grief over the loss of a beloved grandfather as well as budding romance and the choices a young girl must make in regard to relationships. The title of this thought-provoking story about death, grief, and hope comes from a poem called The World by Christian poet Henry Vaughan.
