Newbery Award Winners 2020 List for Children’s Books
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Recently, I posted the 2020 Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List of Books, and I thought I’d put together a list of 2020 Newbery Award Winners too. Both of these are prestigious children’s literature awards. If you are looking for children’s literature ideas, then browse the award-winning children’s books on this list. These books are a great way to fill up those incentivized reading logs to get free books, game tokens, and more.
Part of the American Library Association (ALA), The Association for Library Service to Children awards the John Newbery Medal (note – not Newberry medal) each year. This award is given to authors of “the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.” Incredibly, the Newbery award is actually the first children’s book award in the world!
In order to be considered for the Newbery award, the author must be a United States citizen or resident. In addition, the book must be first published in the U.S. in English.
Newbery Award Winning Books
Newbery Award 2020 Winners
Winner: New Kid, written and illustrated by Jerry Craft (HarperCollins)
Honor Books:
- The Undefeated, written by Kwame Alexander, illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Versify/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
- Scary Stories for Young Foxes, written by Christian McKay Heidicker, illustrated by Junyi Wu (Holt/Macmillan)
- Other Words for Home, written by Jasmine Warga (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins)
- Genesis Begins Again, written by Alicia D. Williams (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster/a Caitlyn Dlouhy Book)
Newbery 2019 Winners
Winner: Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina (Candlewick)
Honor Books:
- The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani (Kokila/Penguin)
- The Book of Boy by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, illustrated by Ian Schoenherr (Greenwillow/HarperCollins)
Here were are some Newbery 2019 predictions.
Louisiana’s Way Home
by Kate DiCamillo
Ghost Boys
by
Front Desk
by Kelly Yang
The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian’s Art Changed Science
by Joyce Sidman
Harbor Me
by Jacqueline Woodson
Amal Unbound
by
Speechless
by Adam P. Schmitt
The Parker Inheritance
by Varian Johnson
Betty Before X
by Ilyasah Shabazz
The Journey of Little Charlie
by Christopher Paul Curtis
More Award-Winning Kids Books
Texas Bluebonnet Books 2018-2019 and 2019 – 2020 Children’s Books Awards
2018 Winners
Currently, the 2018 Newbery medal winner is Hello, Universe
, written by Erin Entrada Kelly. Then, the Newbery Award 2018 Honor Books are Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut
, written by Derrick Barnes. Long Way Down
, written by Jason Reynolds, and Piecing Me Together
, written by Renée Watson.
Newbery Award Winners 2017 List
Amazon has a page devoted just to the winners, The John Newbery Medal for Best Children’s Book. This page has only the 2017 Newbery winner and honor books. See past winners here.
The 2017 Newbery Award winner is The Girl Who Drank the Moon, by Kelly Barnhill. Not only did it win this award, the book also got The New York Times Bestseller, Entertainment Weekly Best Middle Grade Book of 2016, A New York Public Library Best Book of 2016, A Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2016, An Amazon Top 20 Best Book of 2016 ,A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2016, A School Library Journal Best Book of 2016, Named to KirkusReviews’ Best Books of 2016, 2017 Booklist Youth Editors’ Choice.
This book is geared toward kids ages 10-14. Many of the reviews highly recommend this captivating fantasy about a girl who gains magical powers. You can read more reviews and get a synopsis of the book through the link I provided above. It sounds like an awesome book!
Honor books for 2017 are Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life by Ashley Bryan, The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog, by Adam Gidwitz, and Wolf Hollow, by Lauren Wolk.
If you would like to find more children’s literature Newbery Award books, then browse Amazon’s list of Newbery books here. Unfortunately, these are not sorted by year awarded. Below is a list of the award year, author/s, and book title.
List of past Newbery Winners From Every Year and honor books
| Year | Author | Book | Citation |
| 1922 | Hendrik Willem van Loon | The Story of Mankind | Winner |
| 1922 | Charles Boardman Hawes | The Great Quest | Honor |
| 1922 | Bernard Marshall | Cedric the Forester | Honor |
| 1922 | William Bowen | The Old Tobacco Shop: A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of Adventure | Honor |
| 1922 | Padraic Colum | The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles | Honor |
| 1922 | Cornelia Meigs | The Windy Hill | Honor |
| 1923 | Hugh Lofting | The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle | Winner |
| 1924 | Charles Hawes | The Dark Frigate | Winner |
| 1925 | Charles Finger | Tales from Silver Lands | Winner |
| 1925 | Annie Carroll Moore | Nicholas: A Manhattan Christmas Story | Honor |
| 1225 | Anne Parrish & Dillwyn Parrish | The Dream Coach | Honor |
| 1926 | Arthur Bowie Chrisman | Shen of the Sea | Winner |
| 1926 | Padraic Colum | The Voyagers: Being Legends and Romances of Atlantic Discovery | Honor |
| 1927 | Will James | Smoky the Cow Horse | Winner |
| 1928 | Dhan Gopal Mukerji | Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon | Winner |
| 1928 | Ella Young | The Wonder Smith and His Son | Honor |
| 1928 | Caroline Snedeker | Downright Dencey | Honor |
| 1929 | Eric P. Kelly | The Trumpeter of Krakow | Winner |
| 1929 | John Bennett | The Pigtail of Ah Lee Ben Loo with Seventeen Other Laughable Tales and 200 Comical Silhouettes | Honor |
| 1929 | Wanda Gág | Millions of Cats | Honor |
| 1929 | Grace Hallock | The Boy Who Was | Honor |
| 1929 | Cornelia Meigs | Clearing Weather | Honor |
| 1929 | Grace Moon | Runaway Papoose | Honor |
| 1929 | Elinor Whitney Field | Tod of the Fens | Honor |
| 1930 | Rachel Field | Hitty, Her First Hundred Years | Winner |
| 1930 | Jeanette Eaton | A Daughter of the Seine: The Life of Madame Roland | Honor |
| 1930 | Elizabeth Miller | Pran of Albania | Honor |
| 1930 | Marian Hurd McNeely | The Jumping-Off Place | Honor |
| 1930 | Ella Young | The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales | Honor |
| 1930 | Julia Davis Adams | Vaino, A Boy of New Finland | Honor |
| 1930 | Hildegarde Swift | Little Blacknose: The Story of a Pioneer | Honor |
| 1931 | Elizabeth Coatsworth | The Cat Who Went to Heaven | Winner |
| 1931 | Anne Parrish | Floating Island | Honor |
| 1931 | Alida Malkus | The Dark Star of Itza: The Story of A Pagan Princess | Honor |
| 1931 | Ralph Hubbard | Queer Person | Honor |
| 1931 | Julia Davis Adams | Mountains are Free | Honor |
| 1931 | Agnes Hewes | Spice and the Devil’s Cave | Honor |
| 1931 | Elizabeth Janet Gray | Meggy MacIntosh | Honor |
| 1931 | Herbert Best | Garram the Hunter: A Boy of the Hill Tribes | Honor |
| 1931 | Alice Alison Lide and Margaret Alison Johansen | Ood-Le-Uk the Wanderer | Honor |
| 1932 | Laura Adams Armer | Waterless Mountain | Winner |
| 1932 | Dorothy P. Lathrop | The Fairy Circus | Honor |
| 1932 | Rachel Field | Calico Bush | Honor |
| 1932 | Eunice Tietjens | Boy of the South Seas | Honor |
| 1932 | Eloise Lownsbery | Out of the Flame | Honor |
| 1932 | Marjorie Hill Allee | Jane’s Island | Honor |
| 1932 | Mary Gould Davis | Truce of the Wolf and Other Tales of Old Italy | Honor |
| 1933 | Elizabeth Foreman Lewis | Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze | Winner |
| 1933 | Cornelia Meigs | Swift Rivers | Honor |
| 1933 | Hildegarde Swift | The Railroad To Freedom: A Story of the Civil War | Honor |
| 1933 | Nora Burglon | Children of the Soil: A Story of Scandinavia | Honor |
| 1934 | Cornelia Meigs | Invincible Louisa | Winner |
| 1934 | Caroline Snedeker | The Forgotten Daughter | Honor |
| 1934 | Elsie Singmaster | Swords of Steel | Honor |
| 1934 | Wanda Gág | ABC Bunny | Honor |
| 1934 | Erick Berry | Winged Girl of Knossos | Honor |
| 1934 | Sarah Lindsay Schmidt | New Land[11] | Honor |
| 1934 | Padraic Colum | The Big Tree of Bunlahy: Stories of My Own Countryside | Honor |
| 1934 | Agnes Hewes | Glory of the Seas | Honor |
| 1934 | Ann Kyle | Apprentice of Florence | Honor |
| 1935 | Monica Shannon | Dobry | Winner |
| 1935 | Elizabeth Seeger | Pageant of Chinese History | Honor |
| 1935 | Constance Rourke | Davy Crockett | Honor |
| 1935 | Hilda van Stockum | A Day On Skates: The Story of a Dutch Picnic | Honor |
| 1936 | Carol Ryrie Brink | Caddie Woodlawn | Winner |
| 1936 | Phil Stong | Honk, the Moose | Honor |
| 1936 | Kate Seredy | The Good Master | Honor |
| 1936 | Elizabeth Janet Gray | Young Walter Scott | Honor |
| 1936 | Armstrong Sperry | All Sail Set: A Romance of the Flying Cloud | Honor |
| 1937 | Ruth Sawyer | Roller Skates | Winner |
| 1937 | Lois Lenski | Phoebe Fairchild: Her Book | Honor |
| 1937 | Idwal Jones | Whistler’s Van | Honor |
| 1937 | Ludwig Bemelmans | The Golden Basket | Honor |
| 1937 | Margery Williams | Winterbound | Honor |
| 1937 | Constance Rourke | Audubon | Honor |
| 1937 | Agnes Hewes | The Codfish Musket | Honor |
| 1938 | Kate Seredy | The White Stag | Winner |
| 1938 | James Cloyd Bowman | Pecos Bill: The Greatest Cowboy of All Time | Honor |
| 1938 | Mabel Robinson | Bright Island | Honor |
| 1938 | Laura Ingalls Wilder | On the Banks of Plum Creek | Honor |
| 1939 | Elizabeth Enright | Thimble Summer | Winner |
| 1939 | Valenti Angelo | Nino | Honor |
| 1939 | Richard & Florence Atwater | Mr. Popper’s Penguins | Honor |
| 1939 | Phyllis Crawford | Hello the Boat! | |
| 1939 | Jeanette Eaton | Leader By Destiny: George Washington, Man and Patriot | Honor |
| 1939 | Elizabeth Janet Gray | Penn | Honor |
| 1940 | James Daugherty | Daniel Boone | Winner |
| 1940 | Kate Seredy | The Singing Tree | Honor |
| 1940 | Mabel Robinson | Runner of the Mountain Tops: The Life of Louis Agassiz | Honor |
| 1940 | Laura Ingalls Wilder | By the Shores of Silver Lake | Honor |
| 1940 | Stephen W. Meader | Boy with a Pack | Honor |
| 1941 | Armstrong Sperry | Call It Courage | Winner |
| 1941 | Doris Gates | Blue Willow | Honor |
| 1941 | Mary Jane Carr | Young Mac of Fort Vancouver | Honor |
| 1941 | Laura Ingalls Wilder | The Long Winter | Honor |
| 1941 | Anna Gertrude Hall | Nansen | Honor |
| 1942 | Walter D. Edmonds | The Matchlock Gun | Winner |
| 1942 | Laura Ingalls Wilder | Little Town on the Prairie | Honor |
| 1942 | Genevieve Foster | George Washington’s World | Honor |
| 1942 | Lois Lenski | Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison | Honor |
| 1942 | Eva Roe Gaggin | Down Ryton Water | Honor |
| 1943 | Elizabeth Janet Gray | Adam of the Road | Winner |
| 1943 | Eleanor Estes | The Middle Moffat | Honor |
| 1943 | Mabel Leigh Hunt | Have You Seen Tom Thumb? | |
| 1944 | Esther Forbes | Johnny Tremain | Winner |
| 1944 | Laura Ingalls Wilder | These Happy Golden Years | Honor |
| 1944 | Julia Sauer | Fog Magic | Honor |
| 1944 | Eleanor Estes | Rufus M. | Honor |
| 1944 | Elizabeth Yates | Mountain Born | Honor |
| 1945 | Robert Lawson | Rabbit Hill | Winner |
| 1945 | Eleanor Estes | The Hundred Dresses | Honor |
| 1945 | Alice Dalgliesh | The Silver Pencil | Honor |
| 1945 | Genevieve Foster | Abraham Lincoln’s World | Honor |
| 1945 | Jeanette Eaton | Lone Journey: The Life of Roger Williams | Honor |
| 1946 | Lois Lenski | Strawberry Girl | Winner |
| 1946 | Marguerite Henry | Justin Morgan Had a Horse | Honor |
| 1946 | Florence Crannell Means | The Moved-Outers | Honor |
| 1946 | Christine Weston | Bhimsa, the Dancing Bear | Honor |
| 1946 | Katherine Shippen | New Found World | Honor |
| 1947 | Carolyn Sherwin Bailey | Miss Hickory | Winner |
| 1947 | Nancy Barnes | The Wonderful Year | Honor |
| 1947 | Mary & Conrad Buff | Big Tree | Honor |
| 1947 | William Maxwell | The Heavenly Tenants | Honor |
| 1947 | Cyrus Fisher | The Avion My Uncle Flew | Honor |
| 1947 | Eleanore M. Jewett | The Hidden Treasure of Glaston | Honor |
| 1948 | William Pène du Bois | The Twenty-One Balloons | Winner |
| 1948 | Claire Huchet Bishop | Pancakes-Paris | Honor |
| 1948 | Carolyn Treffinger | Li Lun, Lad of Courage | Honor |
| 1948 | Catherine Besterman | The Quaint and Curious Quest of Johnny Longfoot | Honor |
| 1948 | Harold Courlander | The Cow-Tail Switch, and Other West African Stories | Honor |
| 1948 | Marguerite Henry | Misty of Chincoteague | Honor |
| 1949 | Marguerite Henry | King of the Wind | Winner |
| 1949 | Holling C. Holling | Seabird | Honor |
| 1949 | Louise Rankin | Daughter of the Mountains | Honor |
| 1949 | Ruth S. Gannett | My Father’s Dragon | Honor |
| 1949 | Arna Bontemps | Story of the Negro | Honor |
| 1950 | Marguerite de Angeli | The Door in the Wall | Winner |
| 1950 | Rebecca Caudill | Tree of Freedom | Honor |
| 1950 | Catherine Coblentz | The Blue Cat of Castle Town | Honor |
| 1950 | Rutherford George Montgomery | Kildee House | Honor |
| 1950 | Genevieve Foster | George Washington | Honor |
| 1950 | Walter & Marion Havighurst | Song of The Pines: A Story of Norwegian Lumbering in Wisconsin | Honor |
| 1951 | Elizabeth Yates | Amos Fortune, Free Man | Winner |
| 1951 | Mabel Leigh Hunt | Better Known as Johnny Appleseed | Honor |
| 1951 | Jeanette Eaton | Gandhi, Fighter Without a Sword | Honor |
| 1951 | Clara Ingram Judson | Abraham Lincoln, Friend of the People | Honor |
| 1951 | Anne Parrish | The Story of Appleby Capple | Honor |
| 1952 | Eleanor Estes | Ginger Pye | Winner |
| 1952 | Elizabeth Baity | Americans Before Columbus | Honor |
| 1952 | Holling C. Holling | Minn of the Mississippi | Honor |
| 1952 | Nicholas Kalashnikoff | The Defender | Honor |
| 1952 | Julia Sauer | The Light at Tern Rock | Honor |
| 1952 | Mary & Conrad Buff | The Apple and the Arrow | Honor |
| 1953 | Ann Nolan Clark | Secret of the Andes | Winner |
| 1953 | E. B. White | Charlotte’s Web | Honor |
| 1953 | Eloise Jarvis McGraw | Moccasin Trail | Honor |
| 1953 | Ann Weil | Red Sails to Capri | Honor |
| 1953 | Alice Dalgliesh | The Bears on Hemlock Mountain | Honor |
| 1953 | Genevieve Foster | Birthdays of Freedom, Vol. 1 | Honor |
| 1954 | Joseph Krumgold | …And Now Miguel | Winner |
| 1954 | Claire Huchet Bishop | All Alone | Honor |
| 1954 | Meindert DeJong | Shadrach | Honor |
| 1954 | Meindert DeJong | Hurry Home, Candy | Honor |
| 1954 | Clara Ingram Judson | Theodore Roosevelt, Fighting Patriot | Honor |
| 1954 | Mary & Conrad Buff | Magic Maize | Honor |
| 1955 | Meindert DeJong | The Wheel on the School | Winner |
| 1955 | Alice Dalgliesh | The Courage of Sarah Noble | Honor |
| 1955 | James Ullman | Banner in the Sky | Honor |
| 1956 | Jean Lee Latham | Carry On, Mr. Bowditch | Winner |
| 1956 | Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings | The Secret River | Honor |
| 1956 | Jennie Lindquist | The Golden Name Day | Honor |
| 1956 | Katherine Shippen | Men, Microscopes, and Living Things | Honor |
| 1957 | Virginia Sorensen | Miracles on Maple Hill | Winner |
| 1957 | Fred Gipson | Old Yeller | Honor |
| 1957 | Meindert DeJong | The House of Sixty Fathers | Honor |
| 1957 | Clara Ingram Judson | Mr. Justice Holmes | Honor |
| 1957 | Dorothy Rhoads | The Corn Grows Ripe | Honor |
| 1957 | Marguerite de Angeli | Black Fox of Lorne | Honor |
| 1958 | Harold Keith | Rifles for Watie | Winner |
| 1958 | Mari Sandoz | The Horsecatcher | Honor |
| 1958 | Elizabeth Enright | Gone-Away Lake | Honor |
| 1958 | Robert Lawson | The Great Wheel | Honor |
| 1958 | Leo Gurko | Tom Paine, Freedom’s Apostle | Honor |
| 1959 | Elizabeth George Speare | The Witch of Blackbird Pond | Winner |
| 1959 | Natalie Savage Carlson | The Family Under the Bridge | Honor |
| 1959 | Meindert DeJong | Along Came a Dog | Honor |
| 1959 | Francis Kalnay | Chucaro: Wild Pony of the Pampa | Honor |
| 1959 | William O. Steele | The Perilous Road | Honor |
| 1960 | Joseph Krumgold | Onion John | Winner |
| 1960 | Jean Craighead George | My Side of the Mountain | Honor |
| 1960 | Gerald W. Johnson | America Is Born: A History for Peter | Honor |
| 1960 | Carol Kendall | The Gammage Cup | Honor |
| 1961 | Scott O’Dell | Island of the Blue Dolphins | Winner |
| 1961 | Gerald W. Johnson | America Moves Forward: A History for Peter | Honor |
| 1961 | Jack Schaefer | Old Ramon | Honor |
| 1961 | George Selden | The Cricket in Times Square | Honor |
| 1962 | Elizabeth George Speare | The Bronze Bow | Winner |
| 1962 | Edwin Tunis | Frontier Living | Honor |
| 1962 | Eloise Jarvis McGraw | The Golden Goblet | Honor |
| 1962 | Mary Stolz | Belling The Tiger | Honor |
| 1963 | Madeleine L’Engle | A Wrinkle in Time | Winner |
| 1963 | Sorche Nic Leodhas | Thistle and Thyme: Tales and Legends from Scotland | Honor |
| 1963 | Olivia Coolidge | Men of Athens | Honor |
| 1964 | Emily Cheney Neville | It’s Like This, Cat | Winner |
| 1964 | Sterling North | Rascal | Honor |
| 1964 | Ester Wier | The Loner | Honor |
| 1965 | Maia Wojciechowska | Shadow of a Bull | Winner |
| 1965 | Irene Hunt | Across Five Aprils | Honor |
| 1966 | Elizabeth Borton de Treviño | I, Juan de Pareja | Winner |
| 1966 | Lloyd Alexander | The Black Cauldron | Honor |
| 1966 | Randall Jarrell | The Animal Family | Honor |
| 1966 | Mary Stolz | The Noonday Friends | Honor |
| 1967 | Irene Hunt | Up a Road Slowly | Winner |
| 1967 | Scott O’Dell | The King’s Fifth | Honor |
| 1967 | Isaac Bashevis Singer | Zlateh The Goat and Other Stories | Honor |
| 1967 | Mary Hays Weik | The Jazz Man | Honor |
| 1968 | E. L. Konigsburg | From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler | Winner |
| 1968 | E. L. Konigsburg | Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth | Honor |
| 1968 | Scott O’Dell | The Black Pearl | Honor |
| 1968 | Isaac Bashevis Singer | The Fearsome Inn | Honor |
| 1968 | Zilpha Keatley Snyder | The Egypt Game | Honor |
| 1969 | Lloyd Alexander | The High King | Winner |
| 1969 | Julius Lester | To Be a Slave | Honor |
| 1969 | Isaac Bashevis Singer | When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories | Honor |
| 1970 | William H. Armstrong | Sounder | Winner |
| 1970 | Sulamith Ish-kishor | Our Eddie | Honor |
| 1970 | Janet Gaylord Moore | The Many Ways of Seeing: An Introduction to the Pleasures of Art | Honor |
| 1970 | Mary Q. Steele | Journey Outside | Honor |
| 1971 | Betsy Byars | Summer of the Swans | Winner |
| 1971 | Natalie Babbitt | Knee-Knock Rise | Honor |
| 1971 | Sylvia Engdahl | Enchantress from the Stars | Honor |
| 1971 | Scott O’Dell | Sing Down the Moon | Honor |
| 1972 | Robert C. O’Brien | Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH | Winner |
| 1972 | Allan W. Eckert | Incident at Hawk’s Hill | Honor |
| 1972 | Virginia Hamilton | The Planet of Junior Brown | Honor |
| 1972 | Ursula K. Le Guin | The Tombs of Atuan | Honor |
| 1972 | Miska Miles | Annie and the Old One | Honor |
| 1972 | Zilpha Keatley Snyder | The Headless Cupid | Honor |
| 1973 | Jean Craighead George | Julie of the Wolves | Winner |
| 1973 | Arnold Lobel | Frog and Toad Together | Honor |
| 1973 | Johanna Reiss | The Upstairs Room | Honor |
| 1973 | Zilpha Keatley Snyder | The Witches of Worm | Honor |
| 1974 | Paula Fox | The Slave Dancer | Winner |
| 1974 | Susan Cooper | The Dark Is Rising | Honor |
| 1975 | Virginia Hamilton | M. C. Higgins, the Great | Winner |
| 1975 | Ellen Raskin | Figgs & Phantoms | Honor |
| 1975 | James Lincoln Collier & Christopher Collier | My Brother Sam Is Dead | Honor |
| 1975 | Elizabeth Marie Pope | The Perilous Gard | Honor |
| 1975 | Bette Greene | Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe | Honor |
| 1976 | Susan Cooper | The Grey King | Winner |
| 1976 | Sharon Bell Mathis | The Hundred Penny Box | Honor |
| 1976 | Laurence Yep | Dragonwings | Honor |
| 1977 | Mildred Taylor | Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry | Winner |
| 1977 | William Steig | Abel’s Island | Honor |
| 1977 | Nancy Bond | A String in the Harp | Honor |
| 1978 | Katherine Paterson | Bridge to Terabithia | Winner |
| 1978 | Beverly Cleary | Ramona and Her Father | Honor |
| 1978 | Jamake Highwater | Anpao: An American Indian Odyssey | Honor |
| 1979 | Ellen Raskin | The Westing Game | Winner |
| 1979 | Katherine Paterson | The Great Gilly Hopkins | Honor |
| 1980 | Joan Blos | A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal | Winner |
| 1980 | David Kherdian | The Road from Home | Honor |
| 1981 | Katherine Paterson | Jacob Have I Loved | Winner |
| 1981 | Jane Langton | The Fledgling | Honor |
| 1981 | Madeleine L’Engle | A Ring of Endless Light | Honor |
| 1982 | Nancy Willard | A Visit to William Blake’s Inn | Winner |
| 1982 | Beverly Cleary | Ramona Quimby, Age 8 | Honor |
| 1982 | Aranka Siegal | Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939–1944 | Honor |
| 1983 | Cynthia Voigt | Dicey’s Song | Winner |
| 1983 | Robin McKinley | The Blue Sword | Honor |
| 1983 | William Steig | Doctor De Soto | Honor |
| 1983 | Paul Fleischman | Graven Images | Honor |
| 1983 | Jean Fritz | Homesick: My Own Story | Honor |
| 1983 | Virginia Hamilton | Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush | Honor |
| 1984 | Beverly Cleary | Dear Mr. Henshaw | Winner |
| 1984 | Elizabeth George Speare | The Sign of the Beaver | Honor |
| 1984 | Cynthia Voigt | A Solitary Blue | Honor |
| 1984 | Kathryn Lasky | Sugaring Time | Honor |
| 1984 | Bill Brittain | The Wish Giver | Honor |
| 1985 | Robin McKinley | The Hero and the Crown | Winner |
| 1985 | Mavis Jukes | Like Jake and Me | Honor |
| 1985 | Bruce Brooks | The Moves Make the Man | Honor |
| 1985 | Paula Fox | One-Eyed Cat | Honor |
| 1986 | Patricia MacLachlan | Sarah, Plain and Tall | Winner |
| 1986 | Rhoda Blumberg | Commodore Perry In the Land of the Shogun | Honor |
| 1986 | Gary Paulsen | Dogsong | Honor |
| 1987 | Sid Fleischman | The Whipping Boy | Winner |
| 1987 | Cynthia Rylant | A Fine White Dust | Honor |
| 1987 | Marion Dane Bauer | On My Honor | Honor |
| 1987 | Patricia Lauber | Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens | Honor |
| 1988 | Russell Freedman | Lincoln: A Photobiography | Winner |
| 1988 | Norma Fox Mazer | After the Rain | Honor |
| 1988 | Gary Paulsen | Hatchet | Honor |
| 1989 | Paul Fleischman | Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices | Winner |
| 1989 | Virginia Hamilton | In The Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World | Honor |
| 1989 | Walter Dean Myers | Scorpions | Honor |
| 1990 | Lois Lowry | Number the Stars | Winner |
| 1990 | Janet Taylor Lisle | Afternoon of the Elves | Honor |
| 1990 | Suzanne Fisher Staples | Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind | Honor |
| 1990 | Gary Paulsen | The Winter Room | Honor |
| 1991 | Jerry Spinelli | Maniac Magee | Winner |
| 1991 | Avi | The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle | Honor |
| 1992 | Phyllis Reynolds Naylor | Shiloh | Winner |
| 1992 | Avi | Nothing But The Truth: a Documentary Novel | Honor |
| 1992 | Russell Freedman | The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane | Honor |
| 1993 | Cynthia Rylant | Missing May | Winner |
| 1993 | Bruce Brooks | What Hearts | Honor |
| 1993 | Patricia McKissack | The Dark-Thirty | Honor |
| 1993 | Walter Dean Myers | Somewhere in the Darkness | Honor |
| 1994 | Lois Lowry | The Giver | Winner |
| 1994 | Jane Leslie Conly | Crazy Lady! | |
| 1994 | Laurence Yep | Dragon’s Gate | Honor |
| 1994 | Russell Freedman | Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery | Honor |
| 1995 | Sharon Creech | Walk Two Moons | Winner |
| 1995 | Karen Cushman | Catherine, Called Birdy | Honor |
| 1995 | Nancy Farmer | The Ear, the Eye and the Arm | Honor |
| 1996 | Karen Cushman | The Midwife’s Apprentice | Winner |
| 1996 | Carolyn Coman | What Jamie Saw | Honor |
| 1996 | Christopher Paul Curtis | The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 | Honor |
| 1996 | Carol Fenner | Yolonda’s Genius | Honor |
| 1996 | Jim Murphy | The Great Fire | Honor |
| 1997 | E. L. Konigsburg | The View from Saturday | Winner |
| 1997 | Nancy Farmer | A Girl Named Disaster | Honor |
| 1997 | Eloise McGraw | The Moorchild | Honor |
| 1997 | Megan Whalen Turner | The Thief | Honor |
| 1997 | Ruth White | Belle Prater’s Boy | Honor |
| 1998 | Karen Hesse | Out of the Dust | Winner |
| 1998 | Gail Carson Levine | Ella Enchanted | Honor |
| 1998 | Patricia Reilly Giff | Lily’s Crossing | Honor |
| 1998 | Jerry Spinelli | Wringer | Honor |
| 1999 | Louis Sachar | Holes | Winner |
| 1999 | Richard Peck | A Long Way from Chicago | Honor |
| 2000 | Christopher Paul Curtis | Bud, Not Buddy | Winner |
| 2000 | Audrey Couloumbis | Getting Near to Baby | Honor |
| 2000 | Jennifer L. Holm | Our Only May Amelia | Honor |
| 2000 | Tomie dePaola | 26 Fairmount Avenue | Honor |
| 2001 | Richard Peck | A Year Down Yonder | Winner |
| 2001 | Joan Bauer | Hope Was Here | Honor |
| 2001 | Kate DiCamillo | Because of Winn-Dixie | Honor |
| 2001 | Jack Gantos | Joey Pigza Loses Control | Honor |
| 2001 | Sharon Creech | The Wanderer | Honor |
| 2002 | Linda Sue Park | A Single Shard | Winner |
| 2002 | Polly Horvath | Everything on a Waffle | Honor |
| 2002 | Marilyn Nelson | Carver: A Life in Poems | Honor |
| 2003 | Avi | Crispin: The Cross of Lead | Winner |
| 2003 | Nancy Farmer | The House of the Scorpion | Honor |
| 2003 | Patricia Reilly Giff | Pictures of Hollis Woods | Honor |
| 2003 | Carl Hiaasen | Hoot | Honor |
| 2003 | Ann M. Martin | A Corner of the Universe | Honor |
| 2003 | Stephanie S. Tolan | Surviving the Applewhites | Honor |
| 2004 | Kate DiCamillo | The Tale of Despereaux | Winner |
| 2004 | Kevin Henkes | Olive’s Ocean | Honor |
| 2004 | Jim Murphy | An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 | Honor |
| 2005 | Cynthia Kadohata | Kira-Kira | Winner |
| 2005 | Gennifer Choldenko | Al Capone Does My Shirts | Honor |
| 2005 | Russell Freedman | The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights | Honor |
| 2005 | Gary D. Schmidt | Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy | Honor |
| 2006 | Lynne Rae Perkins | Criss Cross | Winner |
| 2006 | Alan Armstrong | Whittington | Honor |
| 2006 | Susan Campbell Bartoletti | Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow | Honor |
| 2006 | Shannon Hale | Princess Academy | Honor |
| 2006 | Jacqueline Woodson | Show Way | Honor |
| 2007 | Susan Patron | The Higher Power of Lucky | Winner |
| 2007 | Jennifer L. Holm | Penny from Heaven | Honor |
| 2007 | Kirby Larson | Hattie Big Sky | Honor |
| 2007 | Cynthia Lord | Rules | Honor |
| 2008 | Laura Amy Schlitz | Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village | Winner |
| 2008 | Christopher Paul Curtis | Elijah of Buxton | Honor |
| 2008 | Gary D. Schmidt | The Wednesday Wars | Honor |
| 2008 | Jacqueline Woodson | Feathers | Honor |
| 2009 | Neil Gaiman | The Graveyard Book | Winner |
| 2009 | Kathi Appelt | The Underneath | Honor |
| 2009 | Margarita Engle | The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom | Honor |
| 2009 | Ingrid Law | Savvy | Honor |
| 2009 | Jacqueline Woodson | After Tupac and D Foster | Honor |
| 2010 | Rebecca Stead | When You Reach Me | Winner |
| 2010 | Phillip Hoose | Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice | Honor |
| 2010 | Jacqueline Kelly | The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate | Honor |
| 2010 | Grace Lin | Where the Mountain Meets the Moon | Honor |
| 2010 | Rodman Philbrick | The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg | Honor |
| 2011 | Clare Vanderpool | Moon Over Manifest | Winner |
| 2011 | Jennifer L. Holm | Turtle in Paradise | Honor |
| 2011 | Margi Preus | Heart of a Samurai | Honor |
| 2011 | Joyce Sidman | Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night | Honor |
| 2011 | Rita Williams-Garcia | One Crazy Summer | Honor |
| 2012 | Jack Gantos | Dead End in Norvelt | Winner |
| 2012 | Thanhha Lai | Inside Out & Back Again | Honor |
| 2012 | Eugene Yelchin | Breaking Stalin’s Nose | Honor |
| 2013 | Katherine Applegate | The One and Only Ivan | Winner |
| 2013 | Laura Amy Schlitz | Splendors and Glooms | Honor |
| 2013 | Steve Sheinkin | Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon | Honor |
| 2013 | Sheila Turnage | Three Times Lucky | Honor |
| 2014 | Kate DiCamillo | Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures | Winner |
| 2014 | Holly Black | Doll Bones | Honor |
| 2014 | Kevin Henkes | The Year of Billy Miller | Honor |
| 2014 | Amy Timberlake | One Came Home | Honor |
| 2014 | Vince Vawter | Paperboy | Honor |
| 2015 | Kwame Alexander | The Crossover | Winner |
| 2015 | Cece Bell | El Deafo | Honor |
| 2015 | Jacqueline Woodson | Brown Girl Dreaming | Honor |
| 2016 | Matt de la Peña | Last Stop on Market Street | Winner |
| 2016 | Kimberly Brubaker Bradley | The War That Saved My Life | Honor |
| 2016 | Victoria Jamieson | Roller Girl | Honor |
| 2016 | Pam Muñoz Ryan | Echo | Honor |
| 2017 | Kelly Barnhill | The Girl Who Drank the Moon | Winner |
| 2017 | Ashley Bryan | Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life by Ashley Bryan | Honor |
| 2017 | Adam Gidwitz | The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog | Honor |
| 2017 | Lauren Wolk | Wolf Hollow | Honor |
