The John Newbery Award is given every year for the most distinguished American children’s book published the previous year. The first award was presented in 1922 and there has been a winner every year since.

Because of the quality of the books most winners continue to be reprinted today. These later editions can be readily identified by the award crest printed on their covers and both soft, and hard, cover examples usually are readily available at garage sales, book sales, and thrift shops.

Buy them when you find them for $.25 or less. They will usually bring somewhere between $1 and $2 each when sold in good sized lots on eBay. When listing them it’s a good idea to include both Newbery and Newberry in your headline.

Here’s a list of the books that have won the award since 1922.

2008: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices From A Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz
2007: The Higher Power Of Lucky by Susan Patron
2006: Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
2005: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
2004: The Tale of Despereaux - Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo
2003: Crispin: The Cross Of Lead by Avi
2002: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Clark
2001: A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck
2000: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul
1999: Holes by Louis Sachar
1998: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
1997: The View From Saturday by E.L. Koingsburg
1996: The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman
1995: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
1994: The Giver by Lois Lowry
1993: Missing May by Cynthia Rylant
1992: Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
1991: Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
1990: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
1989: Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman
1988: Lincoln: A Photo-biography by Russell Freedman
1987: The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman
1986: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
1985: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
1984: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
1983: Dicey’s Song by Cynthia Voight
1982: A Visit to William Blake’s Inn:Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard
1981: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
1980: A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal, 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos
1979: The Westing Game by Ellen Rasken
1978: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
1977: Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
1976: The Grey King by Susan Cooper
1975: M.C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton
1974 :The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox
1973: Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
1972: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien
1971: Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars
1970: Sounder by William H. Armstrong
1969: The High King by Lloyd Alexander
1968: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Lonigsburg
1967: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt
1966: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino
1965: Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska
1964: It’s Like This, Cat by Emily Neville
1963: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
1962: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
1961: The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
1960: Onion John by Joseph Krumgold
1959: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
1958: Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith
1957: Miracles of Maple Hill by Virgina Sorenson
1956: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
1955: The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong
1954; And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold
1953: Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark
1952: Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes
1951: Amous Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates
1950: The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli
1949: King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry
1948: The Twenty-One Ballons by William Pene duBois
1947: Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
1946: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
1945: Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
1944: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
1943: Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray
1942: The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds
1941: Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry
1940: Daniel Boone by James Daugherty
1939: Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright
1938: The White Stag by Kate Seredy
1937: Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer
1936: Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
1935: Dobry by Monica Shannon
1934: Invincible Lousia: The Story of the Author of LittleWomen by Cornelia Meigs
1933: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis
1932: Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer
1931: The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth
1930: Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field
1929: The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly
1928: Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal
1927: Smokey, the Cowhorse by Will James
1926: Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman
1925: Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger
1924: The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes
1923: The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Lofting
1922: The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willen van Loon

There are collectors of the first editions of Newbery Award winners and if you should come across a first edition of any of these books they should be sold individually. Of course first editions won’t have the award crest printed on them, so it can be a good idea to become familiar with the titles of the winners.

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