Reading List · Children's literature
The John Newbery Medal is awarded each year by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of “the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children”. It is named after John Newbery, an eighteenth-century British bookseller, and was proposed in 1921 by Frederic G. Melcher. First presented in 1922, it is described by the ALA as the first children's book award in the world. The 2026 Medal went to Renée Watson's All the Blues in the Sky.
By Lisanne Swart · 105 medal winners since 1922 · Children's literature · All literary prizes · Last reviewed 29 October 2026
Click a title to read about it further down ↓
The 2026 Medal was announced on Monday 26 January 2026 at the ALA Youth Media Awards at the Hilton Chicago, where All the Blues in the Sky by Renée Watson won and four Honor books were named. The 2027 Medal, for a book published in 2026, will be announced at ALA's LibLearnX meeting in January 2027; the exact date was not found.
Quick answer
The Newbery Medal is the American Library Association's annual award for the most distinguished American children's book of the previous year, first given in 1922. The 2026 winner is All the Blues in the Sky by Renée Watson, announced on 26 January 2026.
How this page chooses
The timeline at the top lists every winner, all 105 of them. The latest fifteen have their own entry further down, oldest first; the titles in the timeline that you can click are those.
Under each book is a line of plain fact about the book or its author, and nothing that cannot be checked.
Oldest first. The line in red is a fact about the book or its author, not an opinion about it.
The shop links on this page go straight to the shop. They are not affiliate links and I earn nothing if you buy.
Grounded after accidentally firing his father's Japanese sniper rifle at a drive-in film, Jack is sent to help his elderly neighbour, Miss Volker, type obituaries for the local paper during the summer of 1962.
Also won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction; a sequel, From Norvelt to Nowhere, followed.
Ivan, a silverback gorilla who has spent years in an enclosure at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall, promises his dying elephant friend Stella that he will look after the baby elephant Ruby and find her a better home.
Inspired by a real gorilla kept at a Tacoma shopping mall for about 27 years; a Disney film followed in 2020.
Flora Belle Buckman, a self-declared cynic coping with her parents' divorce, rescues a squirrel after a neighbour's vacuum cleaner runs him over; the squirrel, Ulysses, gains superpowers, and the two set out on adventures.
Kate DiCamillo's second Newbery Medal, after The Tale of Despereaux (2004); a Disney+ film was released in 2021.
Twelve-year-old Josh Bell tells, in the rhythms of a poetry jam, of life on and off the basketball court with his twin brother, J.B., in a close family on the edge of crisis.
Also received a Coretta Scott King Author Honor; Disney+ ordered a television pilot in 2021.
CJ rides the city bus with his grandmother, Nana, to volunteer at a soup kitchen, and along the way begins to notice the beauty in everyday things. Illustrated by Christian Robinson.
Only the second picture book to win the Newbery Medal, and a 2016 Caldecott Honor Book.
Each year a town leaves its youngest baby in the forest as an offering to the witch Xan; when Xan accidentally feeds one girl, Luna, moonlight instead of starlight, Luna gains dangerous magic she must learn to control.
Film rights were acquired by 20th Century Fox Animation in 2016.
Four middle-school students take turns narrating a story that unfolds mostly over a single summer day, after one of them becomes trapped in a well.
Erin Entrada Kelly won a second Newbery Medal in 2025; the German edition won the 2019 Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis.
Merci Suárez, a Cuban-American scholarship student at an elite private school, faces growing pressure at school and at home, where her beloved grandfather has Alzheimer's disease.
Followed by two sequels; Meg Medina later served as National Ambassador for Young People's Literature (2023–2024).
Twelve-year-old Jordan Banks, a Black boy from Washington Heights who loves art, starts at the prestigious Riverdale Academy Day School, where he faces culture shock and microaggressions and makes new friends.
The first graphic novel to win the Newbery Medal; it also won the Coretta Scott King Award.
When twelve-year-old Lily's family moves in with her ailing grandmother, a tiger from Korean folklore appears and demands the return of something her grandmother once took, in exchange for the grandmother's health.
Also won the 2021 Asian/Pacific American Award for Children's Literature.
After a comet strikes Earth in 2061, twelve-year-old Petra Peña and her family board a ship bound for the planet Sagan; centuries later she is the only one aboard who remembers Earth and uses storytelling to keep its history alive.
Also won the 2022 Pura Belpré Award for its author.
Two children escaping a plantation with their mother are separated from her; rescued in a swamp by Suleman, a formerly enslaved man, they are taken to Freewater, a hidden Maroon community.
Also won the 2023 Coretta Scott King Author Award.
Johannes, a free-spirited dog in a large park by the ocean, serves as the eyes of three elderly bison, reporting anything that could upset the park's Equilibrium, until humans begin building near the park's museum.
Illustrated by Shawn Harris; a stage adaptation by Word for Word premiered in San Francisco in February 2026.
In 1999, twelve-year-old Michael is preparing for Y2K when he meets Ridge, a teenager who says he has travelled back from 2199; after Ridge correctly predicts an earthquake, Michael agrees to help him find his way home.
Erin Entrada Kelly's second Newbery Medal, after Hello, Universe (2018).
Thirteen-year-old Sage is devastated when her best friend is killed in a hit-and-run while on the way to celebrate Sage's birthday; alternating verse and prose follow her through the new experiences that follow.
Renée Watson earlier received a 2018 Newbery Honor for Piecing Me Together.
Frederic G. Melcher, an editor at Publishers Weekly, proposed the award at an ALA meeting in June 1921, and the ALA Executive Board approved it in 1922. The first Medal went to Hendrik Willem van Loon's The Story of Mankind, which received 163 of 212 votes in an original popular vote. The Caldecott Medal, for picture-book illustration, was added in 1937.
Today a fifteen-member committee, with eight elected members, six appointed and an appointed chair, reads eligible books and meets in closed sessions; vote totals are kept secret. Books do not need to be nominated, but must be original works by a US citizen or resident, published in English in the United States during the preceding year. From 1932 to 1958 an author could win a second Medal only by a unanimous vote.
Alongside the Medal, the committee may name Newbery Honor books, which were called runners-up until 1971. Since 1938 there have usually been between one and five, though as few as none and as many as eight have been named. Laura Ingalls Wilder received five Honors but never the Medal. In 2026 the Honor books were The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli by Karina Yan Glaser, A Sea of Lemon Trees by María Dolores Águila, The Teacher of Nomad Land by Daniel Nayeri and The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest by Aubrey Hartman.
The Medal usually goes to a novel, but not always. Nancy Willard's poetry collection A Visit to William Blake's Inn (1982) was the first Newbery winner also named a Caldecott Honor Book, and Last Stop on Market Street (2016) became only the second picture book to win. Jerry Craft's New Kid (2020) was the first graphic novel to take the Medal.
The John Newbery Medal is an annual award from the American Library Association's children's division for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children published in the previous year.
All the Blues in the Sky by Renée Watson, announced on 26 January 2026 in Chicago.
The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly, her second Newbery Medal.
A Newbery Honor is given to books the committee judges worthy of attention alongside the Medal winner. Most years have one to five Honor books; 2026 had four.
Authors who are US citizens or residents, for an original book published in English in the United States during the previous year and intended for children up to age 14.
Hendrik Willem van Loon, for The Story of Mankind, in 1922.
Yes, seven authors: Joseph Krumgold, Elizabeth George Speare, E. L. Konigsburg, Katherine Paterson, Lois Lowry, Kate DiCamillo and Erin Entrada Kelly.
Yes. Jerry Craft's New Kid became the first graphic novel to win, in 2020.
Winner list last verified 29 October 2026.
The notes on this page are all mine,
and the books are all theirs.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
If this shelf interested you, the full bookshelf has more: reading lists by theme, author guides, and notes on what is actually worth your time.
Browse the full bookshelf Get book recommendationsThe Night Owl Book Finder
