Posts will continue January 1st

I'm planning a break from the internet for the rest of the month. I will resume posting at the beginning of January.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

1963 Newbery Winner
Finished 11-29-06

Meg Murry’s father hasn’t been heard from for a year now. He simply disappeared into thin air. Meg’s mother firmly believes he is still alive, but everyone else who knows about the situation is convinced he is gone for good. One day Meg meets three mysterious women named Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Who. Soon she finds herself traveling through the fifth dimension, along with her brother Charles Wallace and her friend Calvin. Their mission is to rescue Meg’s father from the planet of Camazotz where the forces of evil are holding him.

Do you know the experience of having a gift card to a certain bookstore, and knowing you only have a certain amount of money to spend? You pick carefully through the books, looking for just the right ones to buy. It has to be something you know you like. Preferably something you know you LOVE. If you know what I’m talking about, then you’ll know what it means when I say that I bought A Wrinkle in Time with my gift card last time I was at Barnes and Noble.

I love the deeper themes in this book. The epic struggle between good and evil, and how it reminds me that I, too, am in a battle against evil. The triumphant theme of all-conquering love. Those are a big part of what gives this book substance.

Of course, you can find those kinds of themes in a lot of other fantasy books. So why else do I like it? I think one thing that makes this book stick more with me is because it’s not weighted down with a lot of wordy and unnecessary descriptions like a lot of fantasy can be. Many times I’ll get lost in the extra fluff of a book and miss out on the important things that are happening. For me, one thing that makes A Wrinkle in Time memorable is because the book moves forward at a good pace without getting bogged down.

In case you’re not convinced, I present you with one final argument. Note the first line of this book: “It was a dark and stormy night.” Read it aloud to yourself in a dramatic voice. How can you not want to read a book that starts like that? It’s awesome.

Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates

1951 Newbery Winner
Finished 11-29-06

At-mun was supposed to be a king. Instead he is a slave. When he was just a boy, slave traders abducted him. He is sold in America and his name is changed to Amos. Amos Fortune, Free Man is a chronicle of his life from that point, until his death at the ripe old age of ninety.

Amos Fortune really was an inspiring man. Despite the way he had been wronged, he did not harbor anger in his heart. His goal in life was to make people free: some from slavery, some from poverty, and some from hatred.

But (here it comes) I really think this could have been written more compellingly. It wasn’t difficult to read. It wasn’t terrible. I just think the book could have made Amos Fortune come more to life. I’m not a big nonfiction reader, so if I’m going to like something that’s nonfiction, it has to be really good. The way the book was written felt okay—but it wasn’t great.

I do think Amos Fortune was a man worth writing about. I’m just not sure that this book did him justice.

(Wow, that’s three somewhat-negative review in a row. I promise, promise that I will do a positive review next time.)

Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski

1946 Newbery Winner
Finished 11-28-06

When the Boyer family moves onto their new farm in Florida, they are more than anxious to be neighborly. Unfortunately, the Slaters don’t reciprocate the feeling. In fact, Mr. Slater employs various methods to try to run the Boyers of their farm, from letting his cattle trample the Boyers strawberry crops, to cutting fences, to setting a fire. We see all this through ten-year-old Birdie Boyer’s eyes, as she attempts to sort out her feelings about the whole mess and struggles with how to treat the Slater boy, Shoestring.

I’m afraid that Lois Lenski books and I have never gotten along too well. I think it’s because I can never relate to her characters. Their emotions, the way they react, seem so out of place to me. They have so much harsh and abrupt anger, and they change from nice to ornery faster than you could blink. Maybe it wouldn’t bother me if I understood the reasons behind the changes, but to me, everything seems so abrupt.

Something that bothered me particularly about this book was the sudden resolution of the conflict. I don’t want to give away what happened, but it just seemed like a cop-out to me. I would have preferred a more gradual build-up to the resolution rather than the quick, easy fix that happened.

On the good side, however, I enjoyed the setting of the book. You don’t read much about the pioneers of Florida. The only other book I can think of (which doesn’t mean their isn’t more) that is set in the wilds of Florida is The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

So overall, I’m afraid I wasn’t very fond of Strawberry Girl. If you know you enjoy Lenski’s style of writing, I’d recommend it. Otherwise, not so much.

Sounder by William H. Armstrong

1970 Newbery Winner
Finished 11-27-06

The boy's family is hungry. Even though they own the most special hunting dog around, named Sounder, game has been scarce this Winter. But one morning, the boy wakes up to the smell of sausages frying. And later that day, the boy's father is arrested for stealing a pig. When Sounder tries to protect him, he is shot, and the boy's mother says he might die. Sounder is really the story of how the boy learns to cope with the possibility of death and the absence of his father.

This was the first book I read for my project, and I'm halfway surprised that I didn't throw in the towel right then and there. Sounder is written in a very different style. None of the characters have names except the dog, Sounder. The other characters are simply called "the boy", "the boy's father", etc. Additionally, the dialogue is pretty sparse, so the pace of the book is not very fast.

I think what really bothered me about Sounder was the lack of direction. It didn't seem like there was any climax, or any point where everything culminates. Everything just sort of happens, and I was left with a feeling of "That's it?"

I certainly did not dislike the book, but it didn't do much for me. However, if you are a fan of "coming of age" stories, you might just enjoy Sounder.

Newbery Award and Honor books

Titles marked in red are the ones I have read. If a title is red AND has a line under it, you can click on it and be taken to my review of it. I will continue to update this as I read. Beware--the list is long. I would recommend that you scan rather than read it.

The 2000s

2008 Medal Winner: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz (Candlewick)

Honor Books:

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic)
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion)
Feathers by Jaqueline Woodson (Putnam)

2007 Medal Winner: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illus. by Matt Phelan (Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson)

Honor Books:

· Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm (Random House)
· Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson (Delacorte Press)
· Rules by Cynthia Lord (Scholastic)


2006 Medal Winner: Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins)
Honor Books:


· Whittington by Alan Armstrong, illustrated by S.D. Schindler (Random House)
· Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (Scholastic)
· Princess Academy by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury Children's Books)
· Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Hudson Talbott (G.P. Putnam's Sons)

2005 Medal Winner: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata (Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster)

Honor Books:

· Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko (G.P. Putnam's Sons/a division of Penguin Young Readers Group)
· The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights by Russell Freedman (Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin)
· Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin)

2004 Medal Winner: The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering, (Candlewick Press)

Honor Books:

· Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow Books)
· An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy (Clarion Books)

2003 Medal Winner: Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi (Hyperion Books for Children)

Honor Books:

· The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (Atheneum)
· Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff (Random House/Wendy Lamb Books)
· Hoot by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf)
· A Corner of The Universe by Ann M. Martin (Scholastic)
· Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan (HarperCollins)

2002 Medal Winner: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park (Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin)

Honor Books:

· Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath (Farrar Straus Giroux)
· Carver: A Life In Poems by Marilyn Nelson (Front Street)

2001 Medal Winner: A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck (Dial)

Honor Books:

· Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
· Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press)
· Joey Pigza Loses Control by Jack Gantos (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
· The Wanderer by Sharon Creech (Joanna Cotler Books/HarperCollins)

2000 Medal Winner: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (Delacorte)

Honor Books:

· Getting Near to Baby by Audrey Couloumbis (Putnam)
· Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm (HarperCollins)
· 26 Fairmount Avenue by Tomie dePaola (Putnam)

The 1990s

1999 Medal Winner: Holes by Louis Sachar (Frances Foster)

Honor Book:

· A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck (Dial)

1998 Medal Winner: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (Scholastic)

Honor Books:

· Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (HarperCollins)
· Lily's Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff (Delacorte)
· Wringer by Jerry Spinelli (HarperCollins)

1997 Medal Winner: The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg (Jean Karl/Atheneum)

Honor Books:

· A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer (Richard Jackson/Orchard Books)
· The Moorchild by Eloise McGraw (Margaret McElderry/Simon & Schuster)
· The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (Greenwillow/Morrow)
· Belle Prater's Boy by Ruth White (Farrar Straus Giroux)

1996 Medal Winner: The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman (Clarion)

Honor Books:

· What Jamie Saw by Carolyn Coman (Front Street)
· The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis (Delacorte)
· Yolonda's Genius by Carol Fenner (Margaret K. McElderry/Simon & Schuster)
· The Great Fire by Jim Murphy (Scholastic)

1995 Medal Winner: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (HarperCollins)

Honor Books:

· Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman (Clarion)
· The Ear, the Eye and the Arm by Nancy Farmer (Jackson/Orchard)

1994 Medal Winner: The Giver by Lois Lowry (Houghton)

Honor Books:

· Crazy Lady by Jane Leslie Conly (HarperCollins)
· Dragon's Gate by Laurence Yep (HarperCollins)
· Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery by Russell Freedman (Clarion Books)

1993 Medal Winner: Missing May by Cynthia Rylant (Jackson/Orchard)

Honor Books:

· What Hearts by Bruce Brooks (A Laura Geringer Book, a HarperCollins imprint)
· The Dark-thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural by Patricia McKissack (Knopf)
· Somewhere in the Darkness by Walter Dean Myers (Scholastic Hardcover)

1992 Medal Winner: Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Atheneum)

Honor Books:

· Nothing But The Truth: a Documentary Novel by Avi (Jackson/Orchard)
· The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane by Russell Freedman (Holiday House)

1991 Medal Winner: Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (Little, Brown)

Honor Book:

· The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi (Jackson/Orchard)

1990 Medal Winner: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (Houghton)

Honor Books:

· Afternoon of the Elves by Janet Taylor Lisle (Jackson/Orchard)
· Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind by Suzanne Fisher Staples (Knopf)
· The Winter Room by Gary Paulsen (Jackson/Orchard)

The 1980s

1989 Medal Winner: Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman (Harper)

Honor Books:

· In The Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World by Virginia Hamilton (Harcourt)
· Scorpions by Walter Dean Myers (Harper)

1988 Medal Winner: Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman (Clarion)

Honor Books:

· After The Rain by Norma Fox Mazer (Morrow)
· Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (Bradbury)

1987 Medal Winner: The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman (Greenwillow)

Honor Books:

· A Fine White Dust by Cynthia Rylant (Bradbury)
· On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer (Clarion)
· Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens by Patricia Lauber (Bradbury)

1986 Medal Winner: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (Harper)

Honor Books:

· Commodore Perry In the Land of the Shogun by Rhoda Blumberg (Lothrop)
· Dogsong by Gary Paulsen (Bradbury)

1985 Medal Winner: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (Greenwillow)

Honor Books:

· Like Jake and Me by Mavis Jukes (Knopf)
· The Moves Make the Man by Bruce Brooks (Harper)
· One-Eyed Cat by Paula Fox (Bradbury)

1984 Medal Winner: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)

Honor Books:

· The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
· A Solitary Blue by Cynthia Voigt (Atheneum)
· Sugaring Time by Kathryn Lasky (Macmillan)
· The Wish Giver: Three Tales of Coven Tree by Bill Brittain (Harper)

1983 Medal Winner: Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt (Atheneum)

Honor Books:

· The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley (Greenwillow)
· Doctor DeSoto by William Steig (Farrar)
· Graven Images by Paul Fleischman (Harper)
· Homesick: My Own Story by Jean Fritz (Putnam)
· Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush by Virginia Hamilton (Philomel)

1982 Medal Winner: A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard (Harcourt)

Honor Books:

· Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)
· Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944 by Aranka Siegal (Farrar)

1981 Medal Winner: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)

Honor Books:

· The Fledgling by Jane Langton (Harper)
· A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle (Farrar)

1980 Medal Winner: A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos (Scribner)

Honor Book:

· The Road from Home: The Story of an Armenian Girl by David Kherdian (Greenwillow)

The 1970s

1979 Medal Winner: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (Dutton)

Honor Book:

· The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)

1978 Medal Winner: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)

Honor Books:

· Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)
· Anpao: An American Indian Odyssey by Jamake Highwater (Lippincott)

1977 Medal Winner: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (Dial)

Honor Books:

· Abel's Island by William Steig (Farrar)
· A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond (Atheneum)

1976 Medal Winner: The Grey King by Susan Cooper (McElderry/Atheneum)

Honor Books:

· The Hundred Penny Box by Sharon Bell Mathis (Viking)
· Dragonwings by Laurence Yep (Harper)

1975 Medal Winner: M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton (Macmillan)

Honor Books:

· Figgs & Phantoms by Ellen Raskin (Dutton)
· My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier & Christopher Collier (Four Winds)
· The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope (Houghton)
· Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe by Bette Greene (Dial)

1974 Medal Winner: The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox (Bradbury)

Honor Book:

· The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper (McElderry/Atheneum)

1973 Medal Winner: Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (Harper)

Honor Books:

· Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel (Harper)
· The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss (Crowell)
· The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Atheneum)

1972 Medal Winner: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (Atheneum)

Honor Books:

· Incident At Hawk's Hill by Allan W. Eckert (Little, Brown)
· The Planet of Junior Brown by Virginia Hamilton (Macmillan)
· The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin (Atheneum)
· Annie and the Old One by Miska Miles (Little, Brown)
· The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Atheneum)

1971 Medal Winner: Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars (Viking)

Honor Books:

· Knee Knock Rise by Natalie Babbitt (Farrar)
· Enchantress From the Stars by Sylvia Louise Engdahl (Atheneum)
· Sing Down the Moon by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)

1970 Medal Winner: Sounder by William H. Armstrong (Harper)

Honor Books:

· Our Eddie by Sulamith Ish-Kishor (Pantheon)
· The Many Ways of Seeing: An Introduction to the Pleasures of Art by Janet Gaylord Moore (World)
· Journey Outside by Mary Q. Steele (Viking)

The 1960s

1969 Medal Winner: The High King by Lloyd Alexander (Holt)

Honor Books:

· To Be a Slave by Julius Lester (Dial)
· When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Farrar)

1968 Medal Winner: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg (Atheneum)

Honor Books:

· Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth by E. L. Konigsburg (Atheneum)
· The Black Pearl by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)
· The Fearsome Inn by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Scribner)
· The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Atheneum)

1967 Medal Winner: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt (Follett)

Honor Books:

· The King's Fifth by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)
· Zlateh The Goat and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Harper)
. The Jazz Man by Mary Hays Weik (Atheneum)

1966 Medal Winner: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino (Farrar)

Honor Books:

· The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander (Holt)
· The Animal Family by Randall Jarrell (Pantheon)
· The Noonday Friends by Mary Stolz (Harper)

1965 Medal Winner: Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska (Atheneum)

Honor Book:

· Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (Follett)

1964 Medal Winner: It's Like This, Cat by Emily Neville (Harper)

Honor Books:

· Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era by Sterling North (Dutton)
· The Loner by Ester Wier (McKay)

1963 Medal Winner: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (Farrar)

Honor Books:

· Thistle and Thyme: Tales and Legends from Scotland by Sorche Nic Leodhas, pseud. (Leclaire Alger) (Holt)
· Men of Athens by Olivia Coolidge (Houghton)

1962 Medal Winner: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)

Honor Books:

· Frontier Living by Edwin Tunis (World)
· The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (Coward)
· Belling The Tiger by Mary Stolz (Harper)

1961 Medal Winner: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)

Honor Books:

· America Moves Forward: A History for Peter by Gerald W. Johnson (Morrow)
· Old Ramon by Jack Schaefer (Houghton)
· The Cricket In Times Square by George Selden, pseud. (George Thompson) (Farrar)

1960 Medal Winner: Onion John by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)

Honor Books:

· My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George (Dutton)
· America Is Born: A History for Peter by Gerald W. Johnson (Morrow)
· The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall (Harcourt)

The 1950s

1959 Medal Winner: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)

Honor Books:

· The Family Under The Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson (Harper)
· Along Came A Dog by Meindert Dejong (Harper)
· Chucaro: Wild Pony of the Pampa by Francis Kalnay (Harcourt)
· The Perilous Road by William O. Steele (Harcourt)

1958 Medal Winner: Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith (Crowell)

Honor Books:

· The Horsecatcher by Mari Sandoz (Westminster)
· Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright (Harcourt)
· The Great Wheel by Robert Lawson (Viking)
· Tom Paine, Freedom's Apostle by Leo Gurko (Crowell)

1957 Medal Winner: Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen (Harcourt)

Honor Books:

· Old Yeller by Fred Gipson (Harper)
· The House of Sixty Fathers by Meindert DeJong (Harper)
· Mr. Justice Holmes by Clara Ingram Judson (Follett)
· The Corn Grows Ripe by Dorothy Rhoads (Viking)
· Black Fox of Lorne by Marguerite de Angeli (Doubleday)

1956 Medal Winner: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham (Houghton)

Honor Books:

· The Secret River by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Scribner)
· The Golden Name Day by Jennie Lindquist (Harper)
· Men, Microscopes, and Living Things by Katherine Shippen (Viking)

1955 Medal Winner: The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong (Harper)

Honor Books:

· Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh (Scribner)
· Banner In The Sky by James Ullman (Lippincott)

1954 Medal Winner: ...And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)

Honor Books:

· All Alone by Claire Huchet Bishop (Viking)
· Shadrach by Meindert Dejong (Harper)
· Hurry Home, Candy by Meindert Dejong (Harper)
· Theodore Roosevelt, Fighting Patriot by Clara Ingram Judson (Follett)
· Magic Maize by Mary & Conrad Buff (Houghton)

1953 Medal Winner: Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark (Viking)

Honor Books:

· Charlotte's Web by E. B. White (Harper)
· Moccasin Trail by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (Coward)
· Red Sails to Capri by Ann Weil (Viking)
· The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesh (Scribner)
· Birthdays of Freedom, Vol. 1 by Genevieve Foster (Scribner)

1952 Medal Winner: Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt)

Honor Books:

· Americans Before Columbus by Elizabeth Baity (Viking)
· Minn of the Mississippi by Holling C. Holling (Houghton)
· The Defender by Nicholas Kalashnikoff (Scribner)
· The Light at Tern Rock by Julia Sauer (Viking)
· The Apple and the Arrow by Mary & Conrad Buff (Houghton)

1951 Medal Winner: Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates (Dutton)

Honor Books:

· Better Known as Johnny Appleseed by Mabel Leigh Hunt (Lippincott)
· Gandhi, Fighter Without a Sword by Jeanette Eaton (Morrow)
· Abraham Lincoln, Friend of the People by Clara Ingram Judson (Follett)
· The Story of Appleby Capple by Anne Parrish (Harper)

1950 Medal Winner: The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli (Doubleday)

Honor Books:

· Tree of Freedom by Rebecca Caudill (Viking)
· The Blue Cat of Castle Town by Catherine Coblentz (Longmans)
· Kildee House by Rutherford Montgomery (Doubleday)
· George Washington by Genevieve Foster (Scribner)
· Song of The Pines: A Story of Norwegian Lumbering in Wisconsin by Walter & Marion Havighurst (Winston)

The 1940s

1949 Medal Winner: King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry (Rand McNally)

Honor Books:

· Seabird by Holling C. Holling (Houghton)
· Daughter of the Mountains by Louise Rankin (Viking)
· My Father's Dragon by Ruth S. Gannett (Random House)
· Story of the Negro by Arna Bontemps (Knopf)

1948 Medal Winner: The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois (Viking)

Honor Books:

· Pancakes-Paris by Claire Huchet Bishop (Viking)
· Li Lun, Lad of Courage by Carolyn Treffinger (Abingdon)
· The Quaint and Curious Quest of Johnny Longfoot by Catherine Besterman (Bobbs-Merrill)
· The Cow-Tail Switch, and Other West African Stories by Harold Courlander (Holt)
· Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry (Rand McNally)

1947 Medal Winner: Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (Viking)

Honor Books:
· Wonderful Year by Nancy Barnes (Messner)
· Big Tree by Mary & Conrad Buff (Viking)
· The Heavenly Tenants by William Maxwell (Harper)
· The Avion My Uncle Flew by Cyrus Fisher, pseud. (Darwin L. Teilhet) (Appleton)
· The Hidden Treasure of Glaston by Eleanor Jewett (Viking)

1946 Medal Winner: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski (Lippincott)

Honor Books:

· Justin Morgan Had a Horse by Marguerite Henry (Rand McNally)
· The Moved-Outers by Florence Crannell Means (Houghton)
· Bhimsa, the Dancing Bear by Christine Weston (Scribner)
· New Found World by Katherine Shippen (Viking)

1945 Medal Winner: Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson (Viking)

Honor Books:
· The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt)
· The Silver Pencil by Alice Dalgliesh (Scribner)
· Abraham Lincoln's World by Genevieve Foster (Scribner)
· Lone Journey: The Life of Roger Williams by Jeanetter Eaton (Harcourt)

1944 Medal Winner: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (Houghton)

Honor Books:

· These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper)
· Fog Magic by Julia Sauer (Viking)
· Rufus M. by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt)
· Mountain Born by Elizabeth Yates (Coward)

1943 Medal Winner: Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Viking)

Honor Books:

· The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt)
· Have You Seen Tom Thumb? by Mabel Leigh Hunt (Lippincott)

1942 Medal Winner: The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds (Dodd)

Honor Books:

· Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper)
· George Washington's World by Genevieve Foster (Scribner)
· Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison by Lois Lenski (Lippincott)
· Down Ryton Water by Eva Roe Gaggin (Viking)

1941 Medal Winner: Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry (Macmillan)

Honor Books:

· Blue Willow by Doris Gates (Viking)
· Young Mac of Fort Vancouver by Mary Jane Carr (Crowell)
· The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper)
· Nansen by Anna Gertrude Hall (Viking)

1940 Medal Winner: Daniel Boone by James Daugherty (Viking)

Honor Books:

· The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy (Viking)
· Runner of the Mountain Tops: The Life of Louis Agassiz by Mabel Robinson (Random House)
· By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper)
· Boy with a Pack by Stephen W. Meader (Harcourt)

The 1930s

1939 Medal Winner: Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright (Rinehart)

Honor Books:

· Nino by Valenti Angelo (Viking)
· Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard & Florence Atwater (Little, Brown)
· Hello the Boat! by Phyllis Crawford (Holt)
· Leader By Destiny: George Washington, Man and Patriot by Jeanette Eaton (Harcourt)
· Penn by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Viking)

1938 Medal Winner: The White Stag by Kate Seredy (Viking)

Honor Books:

· Pecos Bill by James Cloyd Bowman (Little, Brown)
· Bright Island by Mabel Robinson (Random House)
· On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper)

1937 Medal Winner: Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer (Viking)

Honor Books:

· Phebe Fairchild: Her Book by Lois Lenski (Stokes)
· Whistler's Van by Idwal Jones (Viking)
· The Golden Basket by Ludwig Bemelmans (Viking)
· Winterbound by Margery Bianco (Viking)
· The Codfish Musket by Agnes Hewes (Doubleday)
· Audubon by Constance Rourke (Harcourt)

1936 Medal Winner: Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink (Macmillan)

Honor Books:

· Honk, the Moose by Phil Stong (Dodd)
· The Good Master by Kate Seredy (Viking)
· Young Walter Scott by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Viking)
· All Sail Set: A Romance of the Flying Cloud by Armstrong Sperry (Winston)

1935 Medal Winner: Dobry by Monica Shannon (Viking)

Honor Books:

· Pageant of Chinese History by Elizabeth Seeger (Longmans)
· Davy Crockett by Constance Rourke (Harcourt)
· Day On Skates: The Story of a Dutch Picnic by Hilda Von Stockum (Harper)

1934 Medal Winner: Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs (Little, Brown)

Honor Books:

· The Forgotten Daughter by Caroline Snedeker (Doubleday)
· Swords of Steel by Elsie Singmaster (Houghton)
· ABC Bunny by Wanda Gág (Coward)
· Winged Girl of Knossos by Erik Berry, pseud. (Allena Best) (Appleton)
· New Land by Sarah Schmidt (McBride)
· Big Tree of Bunlahy: Stories of My Own Countryside by Padraic Colum (Macmillan)
· Glory of the Seas by Agnes Hewes (Knopf)
· Apprentice of Florence by Ann Kyle (Houghton)

1933 Medal Winner: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis (Winston)

Honor Books:

· Swift Rivers by Cornelia Meigs (Little, Brown)
· The Railroad To Freedom: A Story of the Civil War by Hildegarde Swift (Harcourt)
· Children of the Soil: A Story of Scandinavia by Nora Burglon (Doubleday)

1932 Medal Winner: Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer (Longmans)

Honor Books:

· The Fairy Circus by Dorothy P. Lathrop (Macmillan)
· Calico Bush by Rachel Field (Macmillan)
· Boy of the South Seas by Eunice Tietjens (Coward-McCann)
· Out of the Flame by Eloise Lownsbery (Longmans)
· Jane's Island by Marjorie Allee (Houghton)
· Truce of the Wolf and Other Tales of Old Italy by Mary Gould Davis (Harcourt)

1931 Medal Winner: The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth (Macmillan)

Honor Books:

· Floating Island by Anne Parrish (Harper)
· The Dark Star of Itza: The Story of A Pagan Princess by Alida Malkus (Harcourt)
· Queer Person by Ralph Hubbard (Doubleday)
· Mountains are Free by Julie Davis Adams (Dutton)
· Spice and the Devil's Cave by Agnes Hewes (Knopf)
· Meggy MacIntosh by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Doubleday)
· Garram the Hunter: A Boy of the Hill Tribes by Herbert Best (Doubleday)
· Ood-Le-Uk the Wanderer by Alice Lide & Margaret Johansen (Little, Brown)

1930 Medal Winner: Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field (Macmillan)

Honor Books:

· A Daughter of the Seine: The Life of Madame Roland by Jeanette Eaton (Harper)
· Pran of Albania by Elizabeth Miller (Doubleday)
· Jumping-Off Place by Marion Hurd McNeely (Longmans)
· The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales by Ella Young (Longmans)
· Vaino by Julia Davis Adams (Dutton)
· Little Blacknose by Hildegarde Swift (Harcourt)

The 1920s

1929 Medal Winner: The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly (Macmillan)

Honor Books:

· Pigtail of Ah Lee Ben Loo by John Bennett (Longmans)
· Millions of Cats by Wanda Gág (Coward)
· The Boy Who Was by Grace Hallock (Dutton)
· Clearing Weather by Cornelia Meigs (Little, Brown)
· Runaway Papoose by Grace Moon (Doubleday)
· Tod of the Fens by Elinor Whitney (Macmillan)

1928 Medal Winner: Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji (Dutton)

Honor Books:

· The Wonder Smith and His Son by Ella Young (Longmans)
· Downright Dencey by Caroline Snedeker (Doubleday)

1927 Medal Winner: Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James (Scribner)

Honor Books:

· [None recorded]

1926 Medal Winner: Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman (Dutton)

Honor Book:

· The Voyagers: Being Legends and Romances of Atlantic Discovery by Padraic Colum (Macmillan)

1925 Medal Winner: Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger (Doubleday)

Honor Books:

· Nicholas: A Manhattan Christmas Story by Annie Carroll Moore (Putnam)
· The Dream Coach by Anne Parrish (Macmillan)

1924 Medal Winner: The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes (Little, Brown)

Honor Books:

· [None recorded]

1923 Medal Winner: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (Stokes)

Honor Books:

· [None recorded]

1922 Medal Winner: The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon (Liveright)

Honor Books:
· The Great Quest by Charles Hawes (Little, Brown)
· Cedric the Forester by Bernard Marshall (Appleton)
· The Old Tobacco Shop: A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of Adventure by William Bowen (Macmillan)
· The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles by Padraic Colum (Macmillan)
· The Windy Hill by Cornelia Meigs (Macmillan)

The story behind the blog

Almost exactly a year ago today (two days off--it was November 27th) I began this project to read all of the Newbery Award and Honor books. I was taking a certain writing course, and that course recommended books that were on the Newbery list as good literature to read. I looked up the list, and for some strange reason, thought "Hey, I should read all of these!"

First mistake.

Then, I suppose inspired by the vast expanse of an empty five-in-one notebook, I thought, "Hey, I should write down a summary and some thoughts about each book I read!"

Second mistake.

So I started reading. A little ways into the project, I actually stopped to count how many books were on the list. 366. Gulp.

So fast forward to now, a year later. I've read 69 books, and found some really cool ones. And I had this huge book of all these summaries I've written for them. So I figured as long as I was going to write them all out anyway, I might as well share some of my thoughts in the form of a blog.

Thus the start of this blog.