< 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 Hero and The Crown
By: Robin McKinley
Medal Winner
NOT REVIEWED
Robin McKinley’s mesmerizing history of Damar is the stuff that legends are made of. The Hero and the Crown is a dazzling "prequel" to The Blue Sword.
Aerins is the only child of the king of Damar, and should be his rightful heir. But she is also the daughter of a witch-woman of the North, who died when she was born, and the Damarians cannot trust her.
But Aerin's destiny is greater than her father's people know, for it leads her to battle with Maur, the Black Dragon, and into the wilder Damarian Hills, where she meets the wizard Luthe. It is he who at last tells her the truth about her mother, and he also gives over to her hand the Blue Sword, Gonturan. But such gifts as these bear a great price, a price Aerin only begins to realize when she faces the evil mage, Agsded, who has seized the Hero's Crown, greatest treasure and secret strength of Damar.
From the dust jacket
Like Jake and Me
By: Mavis Jukes
Illustrated by: Lloyd Bloom
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Alex's new stepfather, Jake, is a real cowboy, and Alex wishes he could be just like him. Jake is so strong he can split a log with a single blow. Jake is so brave that Alex is sure nothing could scare him.
But when a big, hairy spider crawls into Jake’s clothes, Alex finds there are some things even cowboys are afraid of. And in the hilariously frantic search that follows, Alex is the one who is strong and brave.
A wonderful family drama unfolds in this book that glows with the promise of love and new life.
From the dust jacket
The Moves Make the Man
By: Bruce Brooks
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Moves were all I cared about last summer. I got them down, like a little definition of Jerome. Reverse spin, triple pump, reverse dribble, stutter step with twist to the left, stutter into jumper, blind pass. These are me. The moves make the man. The moves make me.
Jerome Foxworthy can indeed juke and jive with the best of them. But basketball is not the only light in his life. He is a full partner with older brothers Maurice and Henri in a fatherless home centered on their remarkable Momma, and he's an ace student in accelerated classes. Nothing really seems to faze "the Jayfox'— not even when he has to cross town as the first and only black student to integrate the biggest white school in Wilmington, North Carolina.
But Jerome is caught off guard by the mysterious Bix Rivers, the sharpest white athlete Jerome has ever seen. He is fascinated by this boy so filled with strange wit and complicated pain. What has happened to Bix? Why does he flip out at the slightest suspicion that someone is faking, even in jest? Can he be brought back down to earth by hoops lessons under Professor Jerome, late at night on a windy court in the woods?
So far, there has been no task the Jayfox could not do with smarts and style. Bix is quick to pick up hoops but draws the line at learning moves. To Jerome, moves mean self-expression and survival. To Bix, they mean falsehood. Ever since his mother had a breakdown and was put into a mental hospital, Bix swears he will have no lies in his life—until he pulls the biggest move of all.
With Jerome's witty, generous narrative of this extraordinary friendship, Bruce Brooks's THE MOVES MAKES THE MAN marks the debut of a brilliant new voice in young-adult fiction.
From the dust jacket
One-Eyed Cat
By: Paula Fox
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Ned Wallis's minister father made him promise not to touch the rifle until he turns fourteen. But the eleven-year-old can't resist sneaking outside and trying it out, just once. Ned takes aim, and fires—just as a dark shadow passes in front of him. When he looks up, a flickering face passes across the attic window. Someone was watching.
When a feral cat appears outside the house of an elderly neighbor, with dried blood on its matted fur and a missing eye, Ned begins to wonder: Could he have shot this animal that night? Full of guilt and terrified that his secret will come out, Ned starts caring for the one-eyed cat. But will he be able to come clean about his broken promise and the shot in the dark?
Spring brings the chance for redemption and a surprising revelation from an unexpected source in this New York Times Outstanding Children's Book of the Year.
From the Open Road Media Kindle Edition
