Newbery Award Books Quality books for children

The oldest and best known children book awards are the Caldecott Medal and the Newbery Medal which are presented each year by the American Library Association (ALA).  The Newbery Award books provide educators a trusted place to go when placing the perfect book into the classroom, home school, or book club.  A special thank you to Rebekha Ricksecker who allowed us to use her research paper.

Educators carry the heavy responsibility to promote a love of reading to children and young adults. To promote this love of reading, educators have the role to select, present, and recommend books. Educators must personally like the book they are recommending; because true feelings are obvious to students.  To recommend quality books, Educators must familiarize themselves with a wide variety of books which is a daunting task.  Educators cannot become literature experts overnight (Ricksecker, 2009). 

Newbery Award books contain a variety of themes. Before 1960, many of the books explored the issues surrounding 

1. growing up
2. overcoming fear
3. searching for acceptance

Recently some Medal books focused on 

1. social issues
2. minority and multicultural themes
3. difficulty of children forced to deal with adult-sized problems

Educators carry the responsibility to expose children to literature they want to read.  Educators can use Newbery Award books to promote a love of reading.  Newbery books are both enjoyable and enriching. (Ricksecker, 2009)

Helping you become familiar with the Newbery Medal books is a great place to start and is the purpose and mission of this website.