LibraryAware Newbery Book Award

The girl who drank the moon
by Kelly Regan Barnhill

2017: An epic fantasy about a young girl raised by a witch, a swamp monster, and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon, who must unlock the powerful magic buried deep inside her.

Last Stop on Market Street
by Matt de la Pena

2016: A young boy rides the bus across town with his grandmother and learns to appreciate the beauty in everyday things. By the author of the celebrated picture book A Nation's Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis.

The crossover
by Kwame Alexander

2015: Josh and Jordan must come to grips with growing up on and off the court to realize breaking the rules comes at a terrible price, as their story's heart-stopping climax proves a game-changer for the entire family.

Flora & Ulysses : the illuminated adventures
by Kate DiCamillo

2014: Rife with marvelously rich vocabulary reminiscent of the early superhero era (e.g., “Holy unanticipated occurrences!”) and amusing glimpses at the world from the point of view of Ulysses the supersquirrel, this book will appeal to a broad audience of sophisticated readers. There are plenty of action sequences, but the novel primarily dwells in the realm of sensitive, hopeful, and quietly philosophical literature.

The one and only Ivan
by Katherine Applegate

2013: When Ivan, a gorilla who has lived for years in a down-and-out circus-themed mall, meets Ruby, a baby elephant that has been added to the mall, he decides that he must find her a better life.

From Norvelt to nowhere
by Jack Gantos

2012: After an explosion, a new crime by an old murderer, and the sad passing of the founder of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Jack accompanies his slightly mental elderly mentor, Miss Volker, on a cross-country run as she pursues the oddest of outlaws.

Moon over Manifest
by Clare Vanderpool

2011: Twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker is the daughter of a drifter who, in the summer of 1936, sends her to stay with an old friend in Manifest, Kansas, where he grew up, and where she hopes to find out some things about his past.

When you reach me
by Rebecca Stead

2010: In the 1980s, as her mother prepares to be a contestant on a television game show, Miranda tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from an anonymous source that seems to defy the laws of time and space.

The graveyard book
by Neil Gaiman

2009: After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.

Good masters! Sweet ladies! : voices from a medieval village
by Laura Amy Schlitz

2008: A collection of short one-person plays featuring characters, between ten and fifteen years old, who live in or near a thirteenth-century English manor.

The higher power of Lucky
by Susan Patron

2007: Fearing that her legal guardian plans to abandon her to return to France, ten-year-old aspiring scientist Lucky Trimble determines to run away while also continuing to seek the Higher Power that will bring stability to her life.

Criss cross
by Lynne Rae Perkins

2006: Provides a coming-of-age tale as a young girl struggles with the hardships of becoming a woman while hanging with her friends, trying to learn to drive, dealing with family dramas, and experiencing life in a new town--all while trying to find a meaningful relationship with a caring boy in the process.

Kira-kira
by Cynthia Kadohata

2005: Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair when one sister becomes terminally ill.