< 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!
Crispin: The Cross of Lead
By: Avi
Medal Winner
NOT REVIEWED
"Asta's Son" is all he's ever been called. The lack of name in appropriate, because he and his mother are but poor peasants in fourtenth-century medieval England. But this thirteen-year-old boy who thought he had little to lose soon finds himself with even less—no home, family, or possessions. Accused of a crime he did not commit, he has been declared a "wolf’s head." That means he may be killed on sight, by anyone. If he wishes to remain alive, he must flee his tiny village. All the boy takes with him is a newly revealed name—Crispin—and his mother's cross of lead.
His journey through the English countryside is puzzling, amazing, and terrifying. Especially difficult is his encounter with the juggler named Bear. A huge, and possibly even mad, man, Bear forces the boy to become his servant. Bear, however, is a strange master, for he encourages Crispin to think for himself.
Though Bear promises to protect Crispin, it becomes clear that the boy is being relentlessly pursued. Why are his enemies so determined to kill him? Crispin is gradually drawn right into his enemies' fortress, where—in a riveting climax—he must become a different person if he is to save Bear's life and his own.
A master of breathtaking plot twists and vivid characters, Avi brings the full force of his storytelling powers to the world of medieval England.
From the dust jacket
A Corner of The Universe
By: Ann M. Martin
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
The summer Hattie turns 12, her predictable smalltown life is turned on end when her uncle Adam returns home for the first time in over ten years. Hattie has never met him, never known about him. He's been institutionalized; his condition invovles schizophrenia and autism.
Hattie, a shy girl who prefers the company of adults, takes immediately to her excitable uncle, even when the rest of the family - her parents and grandparents—have trouble dealing with his intense way of seeing the world. And Adam, too, sees that Hattie is special, and that her quiet, shy ways are not a disability.
From the publisher
Hoot
By: Carl Hiaasen
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Everybody loves Mother Paula's pancakes. Everybody, that is, except the colony of cute but endangered owls that live on the building site of the new restaurant. Can the awkward new kid and his feral friend prank the pancake people out of town? Or is the owls' fate cemented in pancake batter?
Welcome to Carl Hiaasen's Florida—where the creatures are wild and the people are wilder!
From the publisher
The House of the Scorpion
By: Nancy Farmer
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Matt Alacrán was not born. He was harvested.
His DNA came from El Patrón, who is the drug-lord ruler of the country of Opium. Most people hate and fear clones like Matt—except for El Patrón. El Patrón loves Matt as he loves himself, because Matt is himself.
As Matt grows up and struggles to understand his existence, he is threatened by a sinister cast of characters, and has to make bigger decisions than he ever imagined. Through Matt’s page-turning adventures, Nancy Farmer tackles some of life’s most enduring questions—what it means to be human, what we owe to each other, and how to find hope in even the darkest situations.
From the publisher
Pictures of Hollis Woods
By: Patricia Reilly Giff
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Hollis Woods
is the place where a baby was abandoned
is the baby’s name
is an artist
is now a twelve-year-old girl
who’s been in so many foster homes she can hardly remember them all.
When Hollis is sent to Josie, an elderly artist who is quirky and affectionate, she wants to stay. But Josie is growing more forgetful every day. If Social Services finds out, they’ll take Hollis away and move Josie into a home. Well, Hollis Woods won’t let anyone separate them. She’s escaped the system before; this time, she’s taking Josie with her. Still, even as she plans her future with Josie, Hollis dreams of the past summer with the Regans, fixing each special moment of her days with them in pictures she’ll never forget.
Patricia Reilly Giff captures the yearning for a place to belong in this warmhearted story, which stresses the importance of artistic vision, creativity, and above all, family.
From the publisher
Surviving the Applewhites
By: Stephanie S. Tolan
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Jake Semple is notorious. Rumor has it he managed to get kicked out of every school in Rhode Island, and actually burned the last one down to the ground.
Only one place will take him now, and that's a home school run by the Applewhites, a chaotic and hilarious family of artists: poet Lucille, theater director Randolph, dancer Cordelia, and dreamy Destiny. The only one who doesn't fit the Applewhite mold is E.D.—a smart, sensible girl who immediately clashes with the defiant Jake.
Jake thinks surviving this new school will be a breeze . . . but is he really as tough or as bad as he seems?
From the publisher
