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Speak Up!
Look Around!
Newbery Medal Winners
2005
j Kad
Kadohata, Cynthia
Kira-Kira
Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing
up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair
when one sister becomes terminally ill.
2004
j DiC
DiCamillo, Kate
The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup,
and a Spool of Thread
The adventures of Desperaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin.
2003
YA Avi
Avi
Crispin: The Cross of Lead
The adventures of Desperaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the
princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a
devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin.
2002
j Par
Park, Linda S.
Single Shard
Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives under a bridge
in a potters' village, and longs to learn how to throw the delicate celadon
ceramics himself.
2001
j Pec
Peck, Richard
A Year Down Yonder
During the recession of 1937, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice is sent to live with
her feisty, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois and comes to a better
understanding of this fearsome woman.
2000
j Cur
Curtis, Christopher P.
Bud, Not Buddy
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great
Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he
believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand
Rapids.
1999
j Sac
Sachar, Louis
Holes
As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse
on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp
in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a
new sense of himself.
1998
YA Hes
Hesse, Karen
Out of the Dust
In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living
on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.
1997
j Kon
Konigsburg, E.L.
The View From Saturday
Four students, with their own individual stories, develop a special bond and
attract the attention of their teacher, a paraplegic, who choses them to represent
their sixth-grade class in the Academic Bowl competition.
1996
j Cus
Cushman, Karen
The Midwife's Apprentice
In medieval England, a nameless, homeless girl is taken in by a sharp-tempered
midwife, and in spite of obstacles and hardship, eventually gains the three
things she most wants: a full belly, a contented heart, and a place in this
world.
1995
j Cre
Creech, Sharon
Walk Two Moons
After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents
take a car trip retracing her mother's route.
Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also
left.
1994
j Low
Lowry, Lois
The Giver
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the
receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers
the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.
1993
j Ryl
Rylant, Cynthia
Missing May
After the death of the beloved aunt who has raised her, twelve-year-old Summer
and her uncle Ob leave their West Virginia trailer in search of the strength
to go on living.
1992
j Nay
Naylor, Phyllis R.
Shiloh
When he finds a lost beagle in the hills behind his West Virginia home, Marty
tries to hide it from his family and the dog's real owner, a mean-spirited
man known to shoot deer out of season and to mistreat his dogs.
1991
j Spi
Spinelli, Jerry
Maniac Magee
After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee's life becomes legendary, as he
accomplishes athletic and other feats which awe his contemporaries.
1990
j Low
Lowry, Lois
Number the Stars
In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns
how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from
the Nazis.
1989
j 821 Fle
Fleischman, Paul
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices
A collection of poems describing the characteristics and activities of a variety
of insects.
1988
Freedman, Russell
Lincoln: A Photobiography (request)
The first half of this biography of America's 16th president traces Lincoln's
life from his boyhood through his early political career. The second half takes
readers through Lincoln's presidency, the Civil War, and his assassination
in 1865. Using quotes from Lincoln's letters, speeches, and other writings
as well as from contemporary newspaper accounts, the author takes care to present
the facts, rather than the mythical legends, of Lincoln's life.
1987
j Fle
Fleischman, Sid
The Whipping Boy
A bratty prince and his whipping boy have many adventures when they inadvertently
trade places after becoming involved with dangerous outlaws.
1986
j Mac
MacLachlan, Patricia
Sarah, Plain and Tall
When their father invites a mail-order bride to come live with them in their
prairie home, Caleb and Anna are captivated by their new mother and hope that
she will stay.
1985
YA McK
McKinley, Robin
The Hero and the Crown
Aerin, with the guidance of the wizard Luthe and the help of the blue sword,
wins the birthright due her as the daughter of the Damarian king and a witchwoman
of the mysterious, demon-haunted North.
1984
j Cle
Cleary, Beverly
Dear Mr. Henshaw
In his letters to his favorite author, ten-year-old Leigh reveals his problems
in coping with his parents' divorce, being the new boy in school, and generally
finding his own place in the world.
1983
YA Voi
Voigt, Cynthia
Dicey's Song
Now that the four abandoned Tillerman children are settled in with their grandmother,
Dicey finds that their new beginnings require love, trust, humor, and courage.
1982
j 821 Wil
Willard, Nancy
A Visit to William Blake's Inn
A collection of poems describing the curious menagerie of guests who arrive
at William Blake's inn.
1981
YA Pat
Paterson, Katherine
Jacob Have I Loved
Feeling deprived all her life of schooling, friends, mother, and even her name
by her twin sister, Louise finally begins to find her identity.
1980
YA Blo
Blos, Joan
A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal
The journal of a 13-year-old girl, kept the last year she lived on the family
farm, records daily events in her small New Hampshire town, her father's remarriage,
and the death of her best friend.
1979
YA Ras
Raskin, Ellen
The Westing Game
The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely
assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before
they can claim their inheritance.
1978
j Pat
Paterson, Katherine
Bridge to Terabithia
The life of a ten-year-old boy in rural Virginia expands when he becomes friends
with a newcomer who subsequently meets an untimely death trying to reach their
hideaway, Terabithia, during a storm.
1977
j Tay
Taylor, Mildred
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
A black family living in the South during the 1930's are faced with prejudice
and discrimination which their children don't understand.
1976
j Coo
Cooper, Susan
The Grey King
In this fourth book of The Dark Is Rising sequence, Will Stanton, visiting
in Wales, is swept into a desperate quest to find the golden harp and to awaken
the ancient Sleepers.
1975
j Ham
Hamilton, Virginia
M.C. Higgins, the Great
As a slag heap, the result of strip mining, creeps closer to his house in the
Ohio hills, fifteen-year-old M. C. is torn between trying to get his family
away and fighting for the home they love.
1974
YA Fox
Fox, Paula
The Slave Dancer
Kidnapped by the crew of an Africa-bound ship, a thirteen-year-old boy discovers
to his horror that he is on a slaver and his job is to play music for the exercise
periods of the human cargo.
1973
YA Geo
George, Jean C.
Julie of the Wolves
While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old
Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by
a wolf pack.
1972
j OBr
O'Brien, Robert C.
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Having no one to help her with her problems, a widowed mouse visits the rats
whose former imprisonment in a laboratory made them wise and long lived.
1971
j Bya
Byars, Betsy
The Summer of the Swans
A teen-age girl gains new insight into herself and her family when her mentally
retarded brother gets lost.
1970
YA Arm
Armstrong, William H.
Sounder
Angry and humiliated when his sharecropper father is jailed for stealing food
for his family, a young black boy grows in courage and understanding by learning
to read and with the help of the devoted dog Sounder.
1969
j Ale
Alexander, Lloyd
The High King
In this fifth and final chronicle of Prydain the forces of good and evil meet
in ultimate confrontation.
1968
j Kon
Konigsburg, E.L.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Having run away with her younger brother to live in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, twelve-year-old Claudia strives to keep things in order in their
new home and to become a changed person and a heroine to herself.
1967
Hunt, Irene
Up a Road Slowly (request)
After her mother's death, Julie goes to live with Aunt Cordelia, a spinster
schoolteacher, where she experiences many emotions and changes as she grows
from seven to eighteen.
1966
YA DeT
de Trevino, Elizabeth B.
I, Juan de Pareja
Juan de Pareja, the slave who prepares the paints and canvases of the artist
Velßzquez, describes his work with his master and the climate of Spanish
court life.
1965
j Woj
Wojciechowska, Maia
Shadow of a Bull
Manolo Olivar has to make a decision: to follow in his famous father's shadow
and become a bullfighter, or to follow his heart and become a doctor.
1964
j Nev
Neville, Emily C.
It's Like This, Cat
Dave Mitchell and his father yell at each other a lot, and whenever the fighting
starts, Dave's mother gets an asthma attack. That's when Dave storms out of
the house. Then Dave meets Tom, a strange boy who helps him rescue Cat. It
isn't long before Cat introduces Dave to Mary, a wonderful girl from Coney
Island. Slowly Dave comes to see the complexities in people's lives and to
understand himself and his family a little better.
1963
j Len
L'Engle, Madeleine
A Wrinkle in Time
Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search
for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the
government.
1962
YA Spe
Speare, Elizabeth G.
The Bronze Bow
Set in Galilee in the time of Jesus, this story tells of a young Jewish rebel
who is won over to the gentle teachings of Jesus.
1961
j Ode
O'Dell, Scott
Island of the Blue Dolphins
When the young Indian girl Karana's tribe leaves their island because of marauding
Russian fishermen, Karana insists on staying. Left to fend for herself and
to do men's work that she had never done before, Karana spends 18 years on
the island with only a dog as company. Based on a true story.
1960
j Kru
Krumgold, John
Onion John
His friendship with the town odd-jobs man, Onion John, causes a conflict
between Andy and his father.