The Newbery Award
What is the Newbery Award? Maybe you’ve heard of this, but wonder exactly what it is. The Newbery award is a prestigious award that has been around for over one hundred years and has sought to recognize excellence in children’s literature. Each February, the Newbery winner and honors are announced by the American Library Association.
John Newbery was a bookseller in Great Britain in the eighteenth century. In 1921, his name was suggested to be used for the award proposed to be given by the American Library Association. This suggestion was adopted and the award has been given each year since 1922, “to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.” It was the first book award created for children’s literature in the world. There are other wonderful awards for children’s literature now worth investigating. We can look at some of these noteworthy awards in another blog post. This link will take you to the up to date list of Newbery winner and honor titles, beginning with the current year and going all the way back to 1922.
The Newbery winner and honor books continue to be awarded annually and indicate children’s books of quality each year. Since the Newbery award is more than one hundred years old, be aware there are books which received the award which might not be considered "politically correct,” or have controversial language and concepts, but offers an opportunity to discuss with children how times have changed and how books reflect the time in which they were written.
Unfortunately, as school libraries have changed into media centers, many books have been discarded, making space for technology and other activities. I observed this personally in the school district where I teach. This is yet another good reason to go to your public library to find great books for you and your children to read! Seek out the Newbery winners and honors and see what gems you can discover. You may even find that you have read some of these books when you were growing up. Share some of those special titles with your children and see what new titles you can discover! Happy reading!