The John Newbery Medal is awarded to ONE book each year by the American Library Association. It was named in honor of 18th century English bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded to the AUTHOR of the best contribution to American books for children. This award honors the WRITING of the winning book.

2020 New Kid – Jerry Craft

2019 Merci Suarez Changes Gears – Meg Medina

2018 Hello Universe – Erin Entrada Kelly

2017 The Girl Who Drank the Moon – Kelly Barnhill

2016 Last Stop on Market Street – Matt De La Pena

2015 The Crossover – Kwame Alexander

2014 Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventure – Kate DiCamillo

2013 The One and Only Ivan – Katherine Applegate

2012 Dead End in Norvelt – Jack Gantos

2011 Moon Over Manifest – Clare Vanderpool

2010 When You Reach Me – Rebecca Stead

2009 The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman

2008 Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices From a Medieval Village – Laura Amy Schlitz

2007 The Higher Power of Lucky – Susan Patron

2006 Criss Cross – Lynne Rae Perkins

2005 Kira-kira – Cynthia Kadohata

2004 The Tale of Despereaux – Kate DiCamillo

2003 Crispin: the Cross of Lead – Avi

2002 A Single Shard – Linda Sue Park

2001 A Year Down Yonder – Richard Peck

2000 Bud, Not Buddy – Christopher Paul Curtis

1999 Holes – Louis Sachar

1998 Out of the Dust – Karen Hesse

1997 The View from Saturday – E. L. Konigsburg

1996 The Midwife’s Apprentice – Karen Cushman

1995 Walk Two Moons – Sharon Creech

1994 The Giver – Lois Lowry

1993 Missing May – Cynthia Rylant

1992 Shiloh – Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

1991 Maniac Magee – Jerry Spinelli

1990 Number the Stars – Lois Lowry

1989 Joyful Noise: a Poem for Two Voices – Paul Fleischma

1988 Lincoln: a Photobiography – Russell Freedman

1987 The Whipping Boy – Sid Fleischman

1986 Sarah, Plain and Tall – Patricia MacLachlan

1985 The Hero and the Crown – Robin McKinley

1984 Dear Mr. Henshaw – Beverly Cleary

1983 Dicey's Song – Cynthia Voigt

1982 A Visit to William Blake’s Inn – Nancy Willard

1981 Jacob Have I Loved – by Katherine Paterson

1980 A Gathering of Days: a New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32 – Joan Blos

1979 The Westing Game – Ellen Raskin

1978 Bridge to Terabithia – Katherine Paterson

1977 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry – Mildred D. Taylor

1976 The Grey King – Susan Cooper

1975 M. C. Higgins, the Great – Virginia Hamilton

1974 The Slave Dancer – Paula Fox

1973 Julie of the Wolves – Jean Craighead George

1972 Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh – Robert C. O’Brien

1971 The Summer of the Swans – Betsy Byars

1970 Sounder – William H. Armstrong

1969 The High King – Lloyd Alexander

1968 From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – E. L. Konigsburg

1967 Up a Road Slowly – Irene Hunt

1966 I, Juan de Pareja – Elizabeth Borton de Trevino

1965 Shadow of a Bull – Maia Wojciechowska

1964 It’s Like This, Cat – Emily Neville

1963 A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle

1962 The Bronze Bow – Elizabeth George Speare

1961 Island of the Blue Dolphins – Scott O’Dell

1960 Onion John – Joseph Krumgold

1959 The Witch of Blackbird Pond – Elizabeth George Speare

1958 Rifles for Watie – Harold Keith

1957 Miracles on Maple Hill – Virginia Sorensen

1956 Carry On, Mr. Bowditch – Jean Lee Latham

1955 The Wheel on the School – Meindert De Jong

1954 And Now Miguel – Joseph Krumgold

1953 Secret of the Andes – Ann Nolan Clark

1952 Ginger Pye – Eleanor Estes

1951 Amos Fortune: Free Man – Elizabeth Yates

1950 The Door in the Wall – Marguerite De Angeli

1949 King of the Wind – Marguerite Henry

1948 The Twenty-One Balloons – William Pene Du Bois

1947 Miss Hickory – Carolyn Sherwin Bailey

1946 Strawberry Girl – Lois Lenski

1945 Rabbit Hill – Robert Lawson

1944 Johnny Tremain – Esther Forbes

1943 Adam of the Road – Elizabeth Janet Gray

1942 Matchlock Gun – Walter D. Edmonds

1941 Call It Courage – Armstrong Sperry

1939 Thimble Summer – Elizabeth Enright

1938 The White Stag – Kate Seredy

1937 Roller Skates – Ruth Sawyer

1936 Caddie Woodlawn – Carol Ryrie Brink

1934 Invincible Louisa: the Story of the Author of Little Women – Cornelia Miegs

1933 Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze – Elizabeth Foreman Lewis

1932 Waterless Mountain – Laura Adams Armer

1931 The Cat Who Went to Heaven – Elizabeth Coatsworth

1930 Hitty: Her First Hundred Years – Rachel Field

1929 The Trumpeter of Krakow – Eric P. Kelly

1928 Gay-Neck: the Story of a Pigeon – Boris Artzybasheff

1927 Smoky, the Cowhorse – Will James

1926 Shen of the Sea: Chinese Stories for Children – Arthur Bowie Chrisman

1925 Tales from the Silver Lands – Charles Joseph Finger

1924 The Dark Frigate – Charles Boardman Hawes

1923 The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle – Hugh Lofting

1922 The Story of Mankind – Hendrick Van Loon