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Newbery Award Winners
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The Great Wheel
by Robert Lawson"Your fortune lies to the west. Keep your face to the sunset . . . and one day you’ll ride the greatest wheel in all the world.” When Aunt Honora reads this fortune in his tea leaves, Conn Kilroy knows he is destined for greater things than his small Irish village can offer. A letter from his uncle Michael in America offering Conn a partnership in his New York contracting company sets Conn on his western adventure. Just a few short months later Conn’s Uncle Patrick lures him even farther west to Chicago, where they join the hardworking crew building what some called Ferris’s Folly—the first Ferris wheel—then the largest wheel in the world and the showpiece of Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.
Newbery Medal Honor book
Homesick
by Jean FritzThis heartwarming fictionalized autobiography tells the story of what it is like for a little girl to be growing up in an unfamiliar place.
While other girls her age were enjoying childhood in America, Jean Fritz was in China in the midst of political unrest. During this time, foreigners were becoming more and more unpopular, and evacuation at a moment's notice was imminent. Although Jean appreciated the beauty of China - the mountains, the countryside, the sea - she knew she belonged in America and longed to make her home there.
Newbery Honor Book
Winner of the National Book Award
A String in the Harp
by Nancy BondA family in mourning...an ancient bard... and a harp key that brings them together.
When fifteen-year-old Jen Morgan flies to Wales to spend Christmas with her family, she's not expecting much from the holiday. A year after her mother's sudden death, her father seems preoccupied by the teaching job that has brought him and Jen's younger siblings to Wales for the year. Her brother, Peter, is alternately hostile and sullen,and her sister, Becky, misses Jen terribly.
Then Peter tells Jen he's found a strange artifact, a harp key that shows him pictures from the life of Taliesin, the great bard whose life in sixth-century Wales has been immortalized in legend. At first Jen doesn't believe him, but when the key's existence -- and its strange properties -- become known to the wider world, the Morgans must act together against a threat to the key...and to their family.
Newbery Honor Book
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle
by Hugh LoftingThe Voyages of Doctor Dolittle is a high-seas adventure of exploration, shipwreck, derring-do, and of course, talking animals. The animals talk because Doctor Dolittle is no ordinary doctor. He has learned the secret of animal language, and uses his talents to help out his friends in the animal world. Now nine-year-old Tommy Stubbins, the son of a shoemaker, has the opportunity to become Dolittle's assistant, and join him on his journeys. Together with their animal companions they will travel to the strange Spidermonkey Island and beyond, in search of a colleague who has gone missing.
The second of Hugh Lofting's Doctor Dolittle series, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle was awarded the prestigious Newbery Medal for children's fiction.
The Thief
by Megan Whalen TurnerThe king's scholar, the magus, believes he knows the site of an ancient treasure. To attain it for his king, he needs a skillful thief, and he selects Gen from the king's prison. The magus is interested only in the thief's abilities. What Gen is interested in is anyone's guess. Their journey toward the treasure is both dangerous and difficult, lightened only imperceptibly by the tales they tell of the old gods and goddesses.
Megan Whalen Turner weaves Gen's stories and Gen's story together with style and verve in a novel that is filled with intrigue, adventure, and surprise.
Newbery Honor book
Thimble Summer
by Elizabeth EnrightA few hours after nine-year-old Garnet Linden finds a silver thimble in the dried-up riverbed, the rains come and end the long drought on the farm. The rains bring safety for the crops and the livestock, and money for Garnet's father. Garnet can't help feeling that the thimble is a magic talisman, for the summer proves to be interesting and exciting in so many different ways.
There is the arrival of Eric, an orphan who becomes a member of the Linden family; the building of a new barn; and the county fair at which Garnet's carefully tended pig, Timmy, wins a blue ribbon. Every day brings adventure of some kind to Garnet and her best friend, Citronella. As far as Garnet is concerned, the thimble is responsible for each good thing that happens during this magic summer--her thimble summer.
Princess Academy
by Shannon HaleMiri lives on a mountain where, for generations, her ancestors have quarried stone and lived a simple life. Then word comes that the king's priests have divined her small village the home of the future princess. In a year's time, the prince himself will come and choose his bride from among the girls of the village. The king's ministers set up an academy on the mountain, and every teenage girl must attend and learn how to become a princess.
Miri soon finds herself confronted with a harsh academy mistress, bitter competition among the girls, and her own conflicting desires to be chosen and win the heart of her childhood best friend. But when bandits seek out the academy to kidnap the future princess, Miri must rally the girls together and use a power unique to the mountain dwellers to save herself and her classmates.
Newbery Medal Honor book
The Perilous Gard
by Elizabeth Marie PopeIn 1558, while exiled by Queen Mary Tudor to a remote castle known as Perilous Gard, young Kate Sutton becomes involved in a series of mysterious events that lead her to an underground world peopled by Fairy Folk-whose customs are even older than the Druids' and include human sacrifice.
Newbery Medal Honor book
Hurry Home, Candy
by Meindert DejongThe dog was lost. He had no name, and no one to love him. He has only the silent, empty countryside, and a few crumbs and bare bones he could pick up. He had only himself, and he was afraid. Along the way, the little dog found a few friends, people who gave him shelter for a while, but always he moved on -- until he found a place he could call home forever.
Newbery Medal Honor Book
Abraham Lincoln's World
by Joanna Foster and Genevieve FosterOriginally published in 1944, Foster earned her reputation by her masterful display of "horizontal history" telling the story of world events in the geo-political sphere, while giving as much importance to advances in science, medicine, music, literature, and exploration.
Thus, while Abe Lincoln was a boy romping the woods of Kentucky, Thomas Jefferson was completing his eighth year as president, George III reigned in Great Britain and Napolean was about to meet his Waterloo. Beethoven and Sir Walter Scott were at the height of their creative powers, while Victor Hugo was staging plays at school. By the time Lincoln was old enough to help his father chop wood, other young boys and girls were being prepared for the future parts they would play. Harriet Beecher was reading anything she could get her hands on, Charles Darwin was collecting toads, crabs and shells, and the impoverished boy Dickens was working in a shoe blacking factory in London. When Lincoln opened his shop in Salem, David Livingstone was opening up deepest Africa, and thousands of Americans were opening up the West on the Oregon Trail. The spirit of freedom was moving around the globe as the abolitionist movement gained power in the States and serfdom saw its demise in Russia. Technologically the world was bursting with the invention of the telegraph, the railroad and the steamboat.
With her whimsical and informative illustrations and timelines Foster has magnificently captured a remarkable age and a remarkable man.
Newbery Honor Winner
Last Stop On Market Street
by Matt de la Peña and Christian RobinsonEvery Sunday after church, CJ and his grandma ride the bus across town. But today, CJ wonders why they don't own a car like his friend Colby. Why doesn't he have an iPod like the boys on the bus? How come they always have to get off in the dirty part of town? Each question is met with an encouraging answer from grandma, who helps him see the beauty--and fun--in their routine and the world around them.
This energetic ride through a bustling city highlights the wonderful perspective only grandparent and grandchild can share.
Winner of the 2016 Newbery Medal
A 2016 Caldecott Honor Book
A New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of 2015
A Wall Street Journal Best Children's Book of 2015
Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories
by Isaac Bashevis Singer and Elizabeth ShubFrom two masters who need no introduction comes a handsome reprint of the classic Newbery Honor book Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories. With wit and whimsy, Maurice Sendak illustrates seven tales about the legendary village of fools, Chelm, written by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Silly, outrageous, and sometimes poignant, the stories (translated from the Yiddish) reflect the traditions, heroes, and villains of middle European folklore. The devil makes an appearance more than once, as do the ever-so-foolish yet highly revered Elders of Chelm. In "The Mixed-Up Feet and the Silly Bridegroom," four sisters wake one morning to discover that their feet have become mixed up in the bed they share. A wise Elder advises their mother to whack the bed with a big stick, thus causing each girl to grab her own feet in pain and surprise. When their feet are sorted out, he then recommends, the sisters should be married off as soon as possible, to reduce the possibility of similar mix-ups in the future. Of course, none of them count on the breathtaking stupidity of the first bridegroom. Another not-so-clever fellow stars in "The First Shlemiel." When this man's wife asks him to do three things for her, he promptly and accidentally proceeds to breach each one of his promises, resulting in a baby with a bump on his head, an escaped rooster, and an emptied pot of jam. Somehow, though, possibly because ignorance is bliss, fools always come out on top in these wonderful stories, making for terrific read-aloud, laugh-aloud fun for the entire family. (All ages) --Emilie Coulter
Anpao
by Jamake HighwaterAnpao is young and Handsome and Brave -- a man any maiden would be proud to call her husband. Any maiden but Ko-Ko-Mik-e-is, that is, who calims she belongs to the Sun alone. And so Anpao sets off for the house of the Sun to ask permission to marry the woman he loves. But Anpao's journey is not an easy one. Before he can reach the Sun, Anapao must travel back in time to the dawn of the world. He must relive his own creation, venture through The World Beneath the World, and battle the many magical mystical creatures of Native American legends. For only by doing so can Anpao discover who he really is, and rove to the Sun why he alone is worthy of the fair Ko-komik-e-is
Newbery Medal Honor book
The Light at Tern Rock
by Julia L. SauerRonnie and his aunt are tending the Tern Rock lighthouse while the keeper takes a vacation. Ronnie loves living in the lighthouse, and looks forward to telling his family about it at Christmas. But the days go by, and the lighthouse keeper doesn't return to take them home...
A Newbery Honor Book.
Scorpions
by Walter Dean MyersBad Trouble
Lately everybody's messing with Jamal. His teachers, the kids at school, even his dad. And now that Jamal's brother Randy's in the slam, Crazy Mack has a crazy idea. He wants Jamal to take control of the Scorpions and run crack.
All the gang jive--Jamal has no use for it. Unless, like some say, it's the only way to cop the bread for Randy's appeal...
The story of twelve-year-old Jamal, whose life changes drastically when he acquires a gun. Though he survives the experience, it's not without sacrificing his innocence and possibly his relationship with his best friend.
Newbery Honor book
Calico Bush
by Rachel FieldThis heartwarming and enthralling classic is the story of a young girl who is left orphaned and alone shortly after her French family arrives in the New World. First published in 1931, this memorable story by a Newbery Award winner offers a historically significant portrait of pioneer life in the eighteenth century.
Newbery Medal Honors book.
Feathers
by Jacqueline Woodson“Hope is the thing with feathers” starts the poem Frannie is reading in school. Frannie hasn’t thought much about hope. There are so many other things to think about. Each day, her friend Samantha seems a bit more “holy.” There is a new boy in class everyone is calling the Jesus Boy. And although the new boy looks like a white kid, he says he’s not white. Who is he?
During a winter full of surprises, good and bad, Frannie starts seeing a lot of things in a new light—her brother Sean’s deafness, her mother’s fear, the class bully’s anger, her best friend’s faith and her own desire for “the thing with feathers.”
Jacqueline Woodson once again takes readers on a journey into a young girl’s heart and reveals the pain and the joy of learning to look beneath the surface.
Newbery Honor book
A Ring of Endless Light
by Madeleine L'Engle"This wasn't the first time that I'd come close to death, but it was the first time I'd been involved in this part of it, this strange, terrible saying goodbye to someone you've loved."
These are Vicky Austin's thoughts as she stands near Commander Rodney's grave while her grandfather, who himself is dying of cancer, recites the funeral service. Watching his condition deteriorate over that long summer is almost more than she can bear. Then, in the midst of her struggle, she finds herself the center of attention for three young men. Leo, Commander Rodney's son, turns to her as an old friend seeking comfort but longing for romance. Zachary, whose attempted suicide inadvertently caused Commander Rodney's death, sees her as the one sane and normal person who can give some meaning to his life. And Adam, a serious young student working at the nearby marine-biology station, discovers Vicky, his friend's little sister, incipient telepathic powers that can help him with his experiments in dolphin communications. Vicky finds solace and brief moments of peace in her poetry, but life goes on around her, and the strain intensifies as she confronts matters of love and of death, of dependence and of responsibility, universal concerns that we all must face. The inevitable crisis comes and Vicky must rely on openness, sensitivity, and the love of others to overcome her private grief. Once again, Madeleine L'Engle has written a story that revels in the drama of vividly portrayed characters and events of the spiritual and moral dimensions of common human experiences.
Newbery Medal Honor book
Frog and Toad Together
by Arnold LobelFrog and Toad are as funny as ever. Bravely they survive an attacking snake and a rock slide, then celebrate by hiding under the covers and in the closet. Toad starts out shouting at his seeds for not growing fast enough, then wears himself out singing for and reading to the seeds because he thinks he has frightened them. Toad finds problems everywhere and his best friend Frog finds solutions. They spend exciting, happy times together as different from each other as popsicles and hot dogs. This is an easy to read first chapter book. The pictures are described.
Newbery Medal Honor book
The King's Fifth
by Scott O'DellIn this deeply affecting novel Scott O'Dell envelops the reader in the heroic world of the conquistadors-a world that is at once somber and many-colored. Though they may have been ruthless, these steel-helmeted young men of Spain lived their lives on the very edge of eternity with style and uncommon courage.
Newbery Honor book
Daniel Boone
by James DaughertyDaniel Boone was a farmer who couldn't stay put. Something was always pulling him westward into new and mysterious lands, and when this pull got so strong that he could no longer ignore it, and his wife and children could not persuade him to stay, he just went, with his toes pointing into the West and his eyes glued to the hills.
Newbery Medal Winner
Johnny Tremain
by Esther Hoskins ForbesJohnny Tremain, winner of the 1943 Newbery Medal, is one of the finest historical novels ever written for children.
As compelling today as it was fifty years ago, to read this riveting novel is to live through the defining events leading up to the American Revolutionary War. Fourteen-year old Johnny Tremain, an apprentice silversmith with a bright future ahead of him, injures his hand in a tragic accident, forcing him to look for other work. In his new job as a horse-boy, riding for the patriotic newspaper, the Boston Observer, and as a messenger for the Sons of Liberty, he encounters John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Dr. Joseph Warren. Soon Johnny is involved in the pivotal events shaping the American Revolution from the Boston Tea Party to the first shots fired at Lexington.
Somewhere in the Darkness
by Walter Dean MyersJimmy hasn't seen his father in nine years. But one day he comes back -- on the run from the law. Together, the two of them travel across the country -- where Jimmy's dad will find the man who can exonerate him of the crime for which he was convicted. Along the way, Jimmy discovers a lot about his father and himself -- and that while things can't always be fixed, sometimes they can be understood and forgiven.
Newbery Medal Honor book
Show Way
by Jacqueline WoodsonSoonie's great-grandma was just seven years old when she was sold to a big plantation without her ma and pa, and with only some fabric and needles to call her own. She pieced together bright patches with names like North Star and Crossroads, patches with secret meanings made into quilts called Show Ways -- maps for slaves to follow to freedom. When she grew up and had a little girl, she passed on this knowledge. And generations later, Soonie -- who was born free -- taught her own daughter how to sew beautiful quilts to be sold at market and how to read.
From slavery to freedom, through segregation, freedom marches and the fight for literacy, the tradition they called Show Way has been passed down by the women in Jacqueline Woodson's family as a way to remember the past and celebrate the possibilities of the future. Beautifully rendered in Hudson Talbott's luminous art, this moving, lyrical account pays tribute to women whose strength and knowledge illuminate their daughters' lives.
Newbery Medal Honor book
The House of Sixty Fathers
by Meindert DejongTien Pao is all alone in enemy territory. Only a few days before, his family had escaped from the Japanese army, fleeing downriver by boat. Then came the terrible rainstorm. Tien Pao was fast asleep in the little sampan when the boat broke loose from its moorings and drifted right back to the Japanese soldiers. With only his lucky pig for company, Tien Pao must begin a long and dangerous journey in search of his home and family.
Newbery Medal Honor book