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I did it. I finished all 100 medal winners.

I have some questions for anyone else who has read or attempted to read a sizable portion of Newbery books.

1. What did you gain from reading these books? What is the benefit of reading them?
2. What were the hidden gems?
3. Which ones felt like a waste of time?

I have read 42 winners, and 37 honor books.

1. a. Most of the winners that I read, I read because they were Newbery winners. There are some very good books that I might not have read otherwise.
b. The benefit is that I am aware of what kids are being required to read.
c. (Your unasked question) Newbery winners are books that adults 'want' children to read. They are not always what children 'want' to read. A lot of excellent books are ignored by the Newbery committee.

2. The Girl Who Drank the Moon from the Newbery winners. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle from the Honor books.

3. Dead End in Norvelt, Criss Cross, Onion John, . . .And Now Miguel, Secret of the Andes. I could list more.

I have read 86 of the Newbery award books. I didn't bother to count honors, because I have read a lot of them (but not all).

1, As a former children's services librarian, I figured it was part of my job to be familiar with as many of the award winners as possible. So the benefit was that I familiarized myself with a lot of the Newbery (and Caldecott) books.

2. For me, the hidden gems were:
A Wrinkle in Time
The Westing Game
Adam of the Road
King of the Wind
From the Mixed-up Files...
The High King
Jacob Have I Loved
Crispin: the Cross of Lead
The Tale of Despereaux
When You Reach Me

3. The ones I didn't particularly like/hated:
M. C. Higgins the Great
A Single Shard
Bud, Not Buddy
Dobry
In my opinion, these four books were bo-o-o-o-ring!!

To be honest, now that I'm retired, I probably will never read the 14 books I never got around to, because none of them particularly appeal to my present reading interests.

By my count, there are 326 Honor books, and I have read 83 of them.

Here are my hidden gems from the Medal winners:
*Dead End in Norvelt
*When You Reach Me
*Criss Cross
*The Graveyard Book
*Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices
*Lincoln: A Photobiography
*Jacob Have I Loved
*The Slave Dancer
*I, Juan de Pareja
*The Bronze Bow
*Shadow of a Bull
*Rifles for Watie
*Carry on, Mr. Bowditch
*The Wheel on the School
*King of the Wind
*The Door in the Wall
*Twenty-One Balloons
*Adam of the Road
*The Matchlock Gun
*Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze
*The Dark Frigate

At least, they are gems in the sense that I enjoyed reading them. I look for a strong theme or plot hook in a book. I also embrace weird or unconventional ideas, such as Poems for Two Voices.

In theory, I am reading these books as part of my job as a reading teacher. Out of the list above, the only books I have gotten into the hands of students are:
*Dead End in Norvelt (they liked it)
*When You Reach Me (went okay)
*Rifles for Watie (one student loved it)
*Carry on, Mr. Bowditch (they hated it and DNF'd)

Obviously, there are other, more well-known Newberys that students have read and loved, such as The Giver, Holes and One and Only Ivan.

King of the Wind, 21 Balloons, Wrinkle in Time, The Long Winter, and Adam of the Road were my favorites when I was a child. I have found that they hold up well enough, imo, to still recommend to the the right children.

I was surprised by how much I loved two of the oldest, Dobry and Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon when I read them for this club.

Mustn't forget Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night.

Many of the oldest historical fiction works, like those by Daughtry, and those about "Indians," are not worth the time of children today.

I could say more if I were better organized but I have no chart and cannot think of an easy way to check. And there are many that I have not yet read because I am reading them in order for the group and we're still half a century behind. ;)

See also this thread: /topic/show/...

Hi, I made a quest of reading all the Newbery gold medalists after reading Johnny Tremain for school in 1978. I read all the gold medalists through in order of publication and many honor books not in order. In cases where I had already read the book, I read it again when I reached its year. I don't know what I gained but I found something to like in most of the books and read many good books I'd have otherwise missed. Some very good ones such as Island of the Blue Dolphins and A Wrinkle in Time don't qualify as "hidden gems" as I'd already read them and a few others such as Bridge to Terabithia were quite famous.

Hidden Gems:
Hitty, Her First Hundred Years
Waterless Mountain (Not a big action book, but one about "Indians" which is well worth reading.)
Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze
Caddie Woodlawn (Would recommend this and Magical Melons to anyone who likes the Little House books.)
Roller Skates (This was the biggest surprise! It starts out so cutesy I didn't know if I could stand it and then it gets dark...real dark. Great book!)
Thimble Summer
Ginger Pye
Miracles on Maple Hill
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
I, Juan de Pareja (Loved this book and received a lovely letter from the author.)
Up a Road Slowly (Surprisingly good for a quiet book.)
Missing May
Bud, Not Buddy
When You Reach Me
Moon Over Manifest
The Girl Who Drank the Moon
The Last Cuentista

Disliked/Hated:

The Story of Mankind (Thought I was gonna die.)
The Trumpeter of Krakow (Dumb main character.)
Dobry (Didn't hate it, but it strains credulity with how well Dobry succeeded in all his art projects, then it just kind of ends.)
The White Stag (Well written but plain scary. Nazi ideology, anyone? Would not have seen print just a few years later.)
Daniel Boone (WORST. NEWBERY. EVER!)
The Bronze Bow (Possible second worse Newbery ever. There is no excuse for its being so bad.)
M. C. Higgins, The Great (Does this book have ANY point? If so, what?)
The Tale of Despereaux (Ever hate a book and not even know why you hated it?)

Favorites:

The Last Cuentista
The Girl Who Drank the Moon
The Graveyard Book
Number the Stars
The Hero and the Crown
The Westing Game
Bridge to Terabithia
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Caddie Woodlawn

Dislked/Hated

Criss Cross
A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers
...And Now Miguel
Secret of the Andes
Ginger Pye
Smoky the Cowhorse
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle

Favorite Honor Books:

The War That Saved My Life
Three Times Lucky
The Wanderer
Ella Enchanted
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
Hatchet
The Sign of the Beaver
The Great Gilly Hopkins
Incident at Hawk's Hill

The older books are among my childhood favorites. I don't have the time or inclination to read any of the new modern stories. My nieces won't read many of the classics and they say those books don't hold up. They read some of the newer ones in school.

Some hold up; some don't, that's for sure! I very much appreciate the additions to this thread!!

Harley wrote: "I have read 42 winners, and 37 honor books.

1. a. Most of the winners that I read, I read because they were Newbery winners. There are some very good books that I might not have read otherwise.
b...."

I second The Girl who Drank the Moon! This was such a fantastic read and one of my 5/5 star books! Highly recommend as a hidden gem people need to read about!

You should also check out both the Newbery Club and also the Newbery Club archives. ALL of the threads remain open and of you want to post about a Newbery book you have read, please do so.

Munchie wrote: "I second The Girl who Drank the Moon! This was such a fantastic read and one of my 5/5 star books! Highly recommend as a hidden gem people need to read about!

That's on the banned list. I may get to it eventually! (Escambia County, Florida)

QNPoohBear wrote: "Munchie wrote: "I second The Girl who Drank the Moon! This was such a fantastic read and one of my 5/5 star books! Highly recommend as a hidden gem people need to read about!

That's on the banned ..."
Why is that book banned?

Harley wrote: "The Girl Who Drank the Moon
Why was that book banned?"

"s-e-x-ual conduct" In violation of Florida law ? I haven't read the book so I can't tell you what they might object to.

QNPoohBear wrote: "Harley wrote: "The Girl Who Drank the Moon
Why was that book banned?"

"s-e-x-ual conduct" In violation of Florida law ? I haven't read the book so I can't tell you what they might ..."

Sexual conduct? I must have missed that the first four times I read it. I'll have to read it again.

Nothing about banned books makes sense, especially in Florida. It may supposedly violate the law against teaching human sexuality. Babies? Are babies banned? Maybe? A librarian may have removed it out of an abundance of caution to avoid trouble. There's no actual information. The book appears in the book censorship database


Red, Wine and Blue's (suburban women for democracy) Banned Book Club read it for their September meeting.

The only Newbery gold with anything like sexual conduct is The Hero and the Crown. Can't think of any in the honor books either. Prove me wrong. Now, the Carnegie award is another story. It does feature sex, drugs, and presumably rock and roll.

QNPoohBear wrote: "Nothing about banned books makes sense, especially in Florida. It may supposedly violate the law against teaching human sexuality. Babies? Are babies banned? Maybe? A librarian may have removed it ..."

All I could find is the phrases "madwoman" and "quite mad" appear and are considered ableist language so that's why it's banned.

Cornelia wrote: "All I could find is the phrases "madwoman" and "quite mad" appear and are considered ableist language so that's why it's banned.

Tasslyn Magnusson's book censorship database just says reason given HB [I can't make out the rest but think it's 1069 the don't say gay bill.


It was removed probably for review. Maybe to see if it contains LGBTQ+ content
PEN America reports

Cornelia wrote: "The only Newbery gold with anything like sexual conduct is The Hero and the Crown. Can't think of any in the honor books either. Prove me wrong. Now, the Carnegie award is another story. It does fe..."

Yes, and it is because of the fact that the Carnegie Medals are often also being awarded for books with really heavy duty themes and are not shy regarding themes of nudity etc. that I personally actually consider them as much more rounded than the Newbery Award (but that might also be a European thing, for in Germany, the Deutscher Jugendbuchpreis also routinely honours books that are openly political, sexual etc.).