Newbery Books

Click here for a complete list of Newbery Medalists, organized by year with ratings, FLAWS, and links to book reviews.

Once upon a time there was a bookseller. His name was Frederic G. Melcher, and he knew in his heart that books for children were just as important as books for adults, if not more so. Why, he wondered, are they so often ignored? He thought and thought, and decided in the end that it didn't matter why; what mattered was that he did something to change all that.

He did. In 1921, he proposed the Newbery Award to the American Library Association, a prize named for 18th-century English bookseller John Newbery to be given to the most distinguished American children's book published the previous year. The Association's Executive Board approved the idea, much to the joy of children's librarians everywhere, and the first Newbery Award was given in 1922.

The express purpose of the medal was "To encourage original creative work in the field of books for children. To emphasize to the public that contributions to the literature for children deserve similar recognition to poetry, plays, or novels. To give those librarians, who make it their life work to serve children's reading interests, an opportunity to encourage good writing in this field."

Melcher's brainchild was the first children's book award in the world, and remains the measure of all the others. He went on to initiate the Caldecott Award for best illustrated children's book, and together the Newbery and the Caldecott provide an important standard for evaluating children's books in the United States and beyond. 

Between 2012-2014, our friend Caleb undertook the project of reviewing ALL the medalists, which he completed (he wrote a sad summary of his journey here). While that is essentially done (we haven't managed to keep it up), we're now gathering information to compile reviews for the honor books! If you'd like to be a part of that process, we invite you to join us at the Facebook group "The Newbery Books Discussion Group."

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60 Items found Print
Active Filters: Realistic Fiction, 8th grade (Ages 13-14), Trade Paperback
After Tupac & D Foster
by Jacqueline Woodson
Reprint from Puffin Books
for 6th-9th grade
2009 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Al Capone Does My Shirts
by Gennifer Choldenko
Reprint from Puffin Books
for 7th-10th grade
2005 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.99
Along Came a Dog
by Meindert DeJong & Maurice Sendak
from Inheritance Publications
Realistic Animal Fiction for 4th-8th grade
1959 Newbery Honor Book
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
Along Came a Dog RPG
by Meindert DeJong & Maurice Sendak
from HarperCollins
Realistic Animal Fiction for 4th-8th grade
1959 Newbery Honor Book
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
And Now Miguel
by Joseph Krumgold
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction for 5th-8th grade
1954 Newbery Medal winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$5.99
Criss Cross
by Lynne Rae Perkins
from Greenwillow Books
for 6th-9th grade
2006 Newbery Medal Winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Dead End in Norvelt
by Jack Gantos
from Square Fish Publishing
for 5th-8th grade
2012 Newbery Medal Winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Dicey's Song
by Cynthia Voigt
from Atheneum
for 6th-10th grade
1983 Newbery Medal winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$12.99
Dobry
by Monica Shannon, illustrated by Atanas Katchamakoff
from Puffin Books
for 4th-8th grade
1935 Newbery Medal winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Doll Bones
by Holly Black
Reprint from Margaret K. McElderry Books
for 5th-9th grade
2014 Newbery Honor Book
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$8.99
Downright Dency
by Caroline Dale Snedeker
from Bethlehem Books
Realistic Fiction for 6th-9th grade
1928 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$16.95
Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
by Jacqueline Kelly
Reprint from Square Fish Publishing
for 4th-8th grade
2010 Newbery Honor
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.99
Fine White Dust
by Cynthia Rylant
2nd Aladdin Paperbacks from Atheneum
for 5th-9th grade
1987 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.99
Genesis Begins Again
by Alicia D. Williams
from Atheneum
for 6th-8th grade
2020 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.99
Getting Near to Baby
by Audrey Couloumbis
from Puffin Books
for 4th-8th grade
2000 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.99
Getting Near to Baby
by Audrey Couloumbis
from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-8th grade
2000 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman
from HarperCollins
for 6th-9th grade
2009 Newbery Medal winner, 2010 Carnegie Medal
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$10.99
Great Gilly Hopkins OSI
by Katherine Paterson
from HarperCollins
for 5th-8th grade.
1979 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$4.00 (2 in stock)
Great Wheel
by Robert Lawson
from Walker and Company
Realistic fiction for 4th-8th grade
1958 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$9.99 $6.00 (2 in stock)
Hidden Treasure of Glaston
Bethlehem Books Living History Library
by Eleanore Jewett
from Bethlehem Books
Historical Fiction for 5th-8th grade
1947 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$15.95
Higher Power of Lucky
by Susan Patron
from Atheneum
for 4th-8th grade
2007 Newbery Medal Winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Joey Pigza Loses Control
by Jack Gantos
Reprint from Square Fish Publishing
for 7th-10th grade
2001 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.99
Jumping-Off Place
by Marion Hurd McNeely
Reprint from Dover Publications
for 6th-8th grade
1930 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$9.95
Kira-Kira
by Cynthia Kadohata
from Atheneum
for 6th-9th grade
2005 Newbery Medal Winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.99
Little Town on the Prairie
Little House Series #7
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1942 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$8.99
Little Town on the Prairie
Little House Series #7
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1942 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$9.99
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
by Gary D. Schmidt
from Clarion Books
for 7th-9th grade
2005 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$7.99
Long Way Down
by Jason Reynolds
Reprint from Atheneum
for 8th-11th grade
2018 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$11.99
Long Winter
Little House Series #6
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1941 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$9.99
Long Winter
Little House Series #6
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1941 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$10.99
M. C. Higgins, the Great
by Virginia Hamilton
from Aladdin Paperbacks
for 6th-10th grade
1975 Newbery Medal winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Maizy Chen's Last Chance
by Lisa Yee
from Yearling
for 4th-8th grade
2023 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.99
Moon Over Manifest
by Clare Vanderpool
from Yearling
for 6th-10th grade
2011 Newbery Medal Winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Moves Make the Man
by Bruce Brooks
from HarperCollins
for 7th-9th grade
1985 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.99
New Kid
by Jerry Craft
from HarperCollins
for 4th-8th grade
in Comic Books & Graphic Novels (Location: FIC-COMIC)
$12.99
Number the Stars
by Lois Lowry
Reissue from Sandpiper Books
for 5th-8th grade
1990 Newbery Medal winner
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$9.99
Olive's Ocean
by Kevin Henkes
Reprint from Greenwillow Books
for 7th-9th grade
2004 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.99
One Came Home
by Amy Timberlake
Reprint from Yearling
for 5th-8th grade
2014 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.99
Other Words for Home
by Jasmine Warga
First Ed from Balzer & Bray
for 4th-8th grade
2020 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$16.99
Paperboy
by Vince Vawter
Reprint from Yearling
for 5th-8th grade
2014 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.99
Phebe Fairchild
by Lois Lenski
1st Edition Thus from Purple House Press
for 3rd-8th grade
1937 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$17.99
Piecing Me Together
by Renée Watson
Paperback Edition from Bloomsbury Publishing
for 7th-10th grade
2018 Newbery Honor Book, 2018 Coretta Scott King Award
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$10.99
Red Sails to Capri
by Ann Weil
from Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd.
Realistic Fiction for 4th-8th grade
Newbery Honor
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Red Sails to Capri
by Ann Weil
from Puffin Books
for 4th-8th grade
1953 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$6.99
Scorpions
by Walter Dean Myers
Revised Paperback, 2013 from Amistad Press
for 7th-10th grade
1989 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$10.99
Seabird
by Holling C. Holling
from Houghton Mifflin
Realistic fiction for 3rd-8th grade
1949 Newbery Honor Book
in BFB Holling Geography (Location: HISCUR-BFG)
$12.99
Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind
by Suzanne F. Staples
Reprint from Ember
for 8th-12th grade
1990 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$9.99
Sing Down the Moon
by Scott O'Dell
from HMH Books for Young Readers
for 6th-8th grade
1971 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$7.99 $4.50 (2 in stock)
Solitary Blue
Tillerman Cycle #3
by Cynthia Voight
Reprint from Atheneum
for 6th-10th grade
1984 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$11.99
Somewhere in the Darkness
by Walter Dean Myers
First Printing from Scholastic Press
for 7th-9th grade
1993 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.99
Swift Rivers
by Cornelia Meigs
from Bloomsbury Publishing
Historical Fiction for 5th-8th grade
1933 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$9.99 $6.00 (2 in stock)
The Defender
by Nicholas Kalashnikoff
Dover 2017 from Dover Publications
for 4th-8th grade
1952 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$5.95
These Happy Golden Years
Little House Series #8
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1944 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$8.99
Upon the Head of the Goat
by Aranka Siegal
First Square Fish: Aug.2012 from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
for 5th-9th grade
1982 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$9.99
View From Saturday
by E. L. Konigsburg
from Aladdin Paperbacks
for 5th-9th grade
1997 Newbery Medal winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.99 $4.50 (3 in stock)
Waterless Mountain
by Laura Adams Armer
from Dover Publications
for 4th-8th grade
1932 Newbery Medal winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$5.99
What Jamie Saw
by Carolyn Coman
from Namelos
for 5th-8th grade
1996 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
When You Reach Me
by Rebecca Stead
from Yearling
for 5th-9th grade
2010 Newbery Medal winner
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
$7.99
Wolf Hollow
by Lauren Wolk
from Puffin Books
for 6th-10th grade
2017 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.99 $5.00 (1 in stock)
Year Down Yonder
by Richard Peck
from Puffin Books
Humorous Family Stories for 5th-9th grade
2001 Newbery Medal winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.99 $5.00 (1 in stock)