This annual award given by the American Library Association for the most distinguished American children's book published the previous year was proposed in 1921, and was named for eighteenth-century English bookseller John Newbery. The first children's book award in the world, the Newbery Medal is today the best known and most discussed children's book award in the United States.

Newbery Medal Winners

1922: The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon
1923: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
1924: The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes
1925: Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger
1926: Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman
1927: Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James
1928: Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji
1929: The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly

1930: Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field
1931: The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth
1932: Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer
1933: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis
1934: Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs
1935: Dobry by Monica Shannon
1936: Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
1937: Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer
1938: The White Stag by Kate Seredy
1939: Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright

1940: Daniel Boone by James Daugherty
1941: Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry
1942: The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds
1943: Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray
1944: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
1945: Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
1946: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
1947: Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
1948: The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois
1949: King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry

1950: The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli
1951: Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates
1952: Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes
1953: Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark
1954: ...And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold
1955: The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong
1956: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
1957: Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson
1958: Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith
1959: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

1960: Onion John by Joseph Krumgold
1961: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
1962: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
1963: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
1964: It's Like This, Cat by Emily Neville
1965: Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska
1966: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino
1967: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt
1968: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
1969: The High King by Lloyd Alexander

1970: Sounder by William H. Armstrong
1971: Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars
1972: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien
1973: Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
1974: The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox
1975: M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton
1976: The Grey King by Susan Cooper
1977: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
1978: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
1979: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

1980: A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos
1981: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
1982: A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard
1983: Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt
1984: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
1985: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
1986: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
1987: The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman
1988: Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman
1989: Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman

1990: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
1991: Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
1992: Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
1993: Missing May by Cynthia Rylant
1994: The Giver by Lois Lowry
1995: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
1996: The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman
1997: The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg
1998: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
1999: Holes by Louis Sachar

2000: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
2001: A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck
2002: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
2003: Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi
2004: The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo
2005: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
2006: Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
2007: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron
2008: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz
2009: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

2010: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
2011: Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
2012: Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
2013: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
2014: Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo
2015: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

American Library Association

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