
Newbery Award
The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association.
“The most distinguished contribution to American Literature for Children” is what it says on the medal itself. Imagine how the author feels to have a book described like that!
When the Committee called me in 1990 to tell me that Number the Stars had been awarded the medal, they found me at my desk, where I usually am. In 1994, they couldn’t find me. I was in Antarctica! Eventually they reached me by sending a radiogram. So I was feeling on top of the world, though, technically speaking, I was actually at the bottom. You can read more about the Newbery Medal at the ALSC’s website.
- Newbery Medal (1990 and 1994)
- Margaret A. Edwards Award for Lifetime Contribution to Young Adult Literature
- Regina Medal
- National Jewish Book Award
- Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (1987 and 1993)
- Sydney Taylor Book Award
- Hope S. Dean Award
- New England Book Award
- Chicago Tribune Young Adult Fiction Prize
- Hans Christian Andersen Award nominee (United States)
- Golden Kite Award
- International Reading Association Children’s Book Award
- International Board on Books for Young People Honor List
- Kerlan Award
- The Children’s Book Committee Bank Street College of Education The Outstanding Children’s Books of the Year
- Parents’ Choice Gold
- Little D Award
- 2011 May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture
- Lamstein Lecture at the University of Michigan
- 2001 Zena Sutherland Lecture
- Anne Carroll Moore Lecture
- Frances Clarke Sayers Lecture
State Awards
- Arizona Young Read’s Awards
- Arkansas – Charlie May Simon Children’s Book Award
- Georgia Children’s Book Awards
- Illinois – Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award
- Indiana –Young Hoosier Book Award
- Outstanding Pennsylvania Author Award
- Iowa Children’s Choice Awards & Iowa Teen Award
- Kansas – William Allen White Children’s Book Award
- Maine Student Book Award
- Maryland Children’s Book Award
- Massachusetts Children’s Book Award
- Missouri – Mark Twain Award
- Nebraska – Golden Sower Award
- Nevada Young Readers Awards
- New Jersey – Garden State Children’s Book Awards & Garden State Teen Book Awards
- Oklahoma – Sequoyah Children’s and Young Adult Book Awards
- Pacific Northwest – Young Reader’s Choice Awards
- Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Awards
- South Dakota – Prairie Pasque Awards
- Vermont – Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award
- Wisconsin – Golden Archer Award
- Wyoming – Soaring Eagle Book Award
