2011
Clare Vanderpool. Moon Over Manifest

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.

2010
Rebecca Stead. When You Reach Me

As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1980s television game show, "The $20,000 Pyramid," a twelve-year-old New York City girl 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.

2009

Neil Gaiman.  The Graveyard Book

An orphaned boy is raised by ghosts and other denizens of the graveyard.

2008

Laura Amy Schlitz.  Good Masters!  Sweet Ladies!

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.

2007

Susan Patron.  The Higher Power of Lucky

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.

2006

Lynne Rae Perkins.  Criss Cross

Teenagers in a small town in the 1960s experience new thoughts and feelings, question their identities, connect, and disconnect as they search for the meaning of life and love.

2005

Cynthia Kadohata.  Kira-Kira

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.

2004

Kate DiCamillo.  The Tale of Despereaux

The adventures of Desperaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin.

2003

Avi. Crispin: The Cross of Lead

Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret.

2002

Linda Sue Park. A Single Shard

Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives under a bridge in a potters' village, and longs to learn how to throw the delicate celadon ceramics himself.

2001

Richard Peck. A Year Down Yonder

During the recession of 1937, fifteen- year -ole Mary Alice is sent to live with her feisty, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois and comes to a better understanding the this fearsome woman.

2000

Paul Curtis. Bud, Not Buddy

Ten-year-old Bud , a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.

1999

Louis Sachar. Holes

As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.

1998

Karen Hesse. Out of the Dust

In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.

1997

E.L. Konigsburg. The View From Saturday

Four students, with their own individual stories, develop a special bond and attract the attention of their teacher, a paraplegic, who choses them to represent their sixth-grade class in the Academic Bowl competition.

1996

Karen Cushman. The Midwife's Apprentice

In medieval England, a nameless, homeless girl is taken in by a sharp-tempered midwife, and in spite of obstacles and hardship, eventually gains the three things she most wants: a full belly, a contented heart, and a place in this world.

1995

Sharon Creech. Walk Two Moons

After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left.

1994

Lois Lowry. The Giver

Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.

1993

Cynthia Rylant. Missing May

After the death of the beloved aunt who has raised her, twelve-year-old Summer and her uncle Ob leave their West Virginia trailer in search of the strength to go on living.

1992

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Shiloh

When he finds a lost beagle in the hills behind his West Virginia home, Marty tries to hide it from his family and the dog's real owner, a mean-spirited man known to shoot deer out of season and to mistreat his dogs.

1991

Jerry Spinelli. Maniac Magee

After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee's life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic and other feats which awe his contemporaries.

1990

Lois Lowry. Number the Stars

In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.

1989

Paul Fleischman. Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices

A collection of poems describing the characteristics and activities of a variety of insects.

1988

Russell Freedman. Lincoln: A Photobiography

The story of Abraham Lincoln told with photographs and prints, providing a vivid look at the life and times of one of the nation's great leaders.

1987

Sid Fleischman. The Whipping Boy

A bratty prince and his whipping boy have many adventures when they inadvertently trade places after becoming involved with dangerous outlaws.

1986

Patricia MacLachlan. Sarah, Plain and Tall

When their father invites a mail-order bride to come live with them in their prairie home, Caleb and Anna are captivated by their new mother and hope that she will stay.

1985

Robin McKinley. The Hero and the Crown

Aerin, with the guidance of the wizard Luthe and the help of the blue sword, wins the birthright due her as the daughter of the Damarian king and a witchwoman of the mysterious, demon-haunted North.

1984

Beverly Cleary. Dear Mr. Henshaw

In his letters to his favorite author, ten-year-old Leigh reveals his problems in coping with his parents' divorce, being the new boy in school, and generally finding his own place in the world.

1983

Cynthia Voigt. Dicey's Song

Now that the four abandoned Tillerman children are settled in with their grandmother, Dicey finds that their new beginnings require love, trust, humor, and courage.

1982

Nancy Willard. A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and

Experienced Travelers  A collection of poems describing the curious menagerie of guests who arrive at William Blake's inn.

1981

Katherine Paterson. Jacob Have I Loved

Growing up on a Chesapeake Bay Island, Louise reveals how she always felt that her sister Caroline was the best loved.

1980

Joan Blos. A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32

The journal of a 14-year-old girl, kept the last year she lived on the family farm, records daily events in her small New Hampshire town, her father's remarriage, and the death of her best friend.

1979

Ellen Raskin. The Westing Game

The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim their inheritance.

1978

Katherine Paterson. Bridge to Terabithia

The life of a ten-year-old boy in rural Virginia expands when he becomes friends with a newcomer who subsequently meets an untimely death trying to reach their hideaway, Terabithia, during a storm.

1977

Mildred D. Taylor. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

A black family living in the South during the 1930's are faced with prejudice and discrimination which their children don't understand.

1976

Susan Cooper. The Grey King

A strange boy and dog remind Will Stanton that he is an immortal, whose quest is to find the golden harp which will rouse others from a long slumber in the Welsh hills so they may prepare for the ultimate battle of Light versus Dark.

1975

Virginia Hamilton. M.C. Higgins, the Great

As a slag heap, the result of strip mining, creeps closer to his house in the Ohio hills, fifteen-year-old M.C. is torn between trying to get his family away and fighting for the home they love.

1974

Paula Fox. The Slave Dancer

Kidnapped by the crew of an Africa-bound ship, a thirteen-year-old boy discovers to his horror that he is on a slaver and his job is to play music for the exercise periods of the human cargo.

1973

Jean Craighead George. Julie of the Wolves

While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack.

1972

Robert C. O'Brien. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Having no one to help her with her problems, a widowed mouse visits the rats whose former imprisonment in a laboratory made them wise and long lived.

1971

Betsy Byars. The Summer of the Swans

A teen-age girl gains new insight into herself and her family when her mentally handicapped brother gets lost.

1970

William H. Armstrong. Sounder

A young Negro boy learns the pain of humiliation and anger when his father is given an unjust jail sentence for stealing a ham from a white man. Learning to read and to discover that things do not die but become part of other things brings the youngster new hope.

1969

Lloyd Alexander. The High King

In this final part of the chronicle of Prydain the forces of good and evil meet in an ultimate confrontation, which determines the fate of Taran, the Assistant Pig-Keeper who wanted to be a hero.

1968

E.L. Konigsburg. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Claudia must solve a mystery as she stages a secret live-in at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

1967

Irene Hunt. Up a Road Slowly

After her mother's death, Julie goes to live with Aunt Cordelia, a spinster schoolteacher, where she experiences many emotions and changes as she grows from seven to eighteen.

1966

Elizabeth Borton de Treviño. I, Juan de Pareja

Novel based on the true story of the slave, Juan de Pareja, who was willed to Velazquez and whose relationship with the great Spanish painter evolved into one of friendship and equality.

1965

Maia Wojciechowska. Shadow of a Bull

Manolo Olivar has to make a decision: to follow in his famous father's shadow and become a bullfighter, or to follow his heart and become a doctor.

1964

Emily C. Neville. It's Like This, Cat

Dave Mitchell, at fourteen, grows up amidst the backdrop of New York City.

1963

Madeleine L'Engle. A Wrinkle in Time

Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government.

1962

Elizabeth George Speare. The Bronze Bow

Set in Galilee in the time of Jesus, this story tells of a young Jewish rebel who is won over to the gentle teachings of Jesus.

1961

Scott O'Dell. Island of the Blue Dolphins

Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl spends eighteen years, not only merely surviving through her enormous courage and self-reliance, but also finding a measure of happiness in her solitary life.

1960

John Krumgold. Onion John

His friendship with the town odd-jobs man, Onion John, causes a conflict between Andy and his father.

1959

Elizabeth George Speare. The Witch of Blackbird Pond

In 1687 in Connecticut, Kit Tyler, feeling out of place in the Puritan household of her aunt, befriends an old woman considered a witch by the community and suddenly finds herself standing trial for witchcraft.

1958

Harold V. Keith. Rifles for Watie

During the Civil War a young farm boy joins the Union Army. He becomes a scout and temporarily is part of Stand Watie's Cherokee Rebels.

1957

Virginia Sorensen. Miracles on Maple Hill

Marly and her family share many adventures when they move from the city to a farmhouse on Maple Hill.

1956

Jean Lee Latham. Carry On, Mr. Bowditch

A fictionalized biography of the mathematician and astronomer who realized his childhood desire to become a ship's captain and authored The American Practical Navigator.

1955

Meindert DeJong. The Wheel on the School

Lina, a young schoolgirl in the small Dutch fishing village of Shora, wonders why the storks no longer come to their town. Her curiosity spreads throughout the school and soon everyone is asking what made them leave.

1954

John Krumgold. ... And Now Miguel

Twelve-year-old Miguel Chavez prays that he will be allowed to go with the men of his family on a long and hard sheep drive to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

1953

Ann Nolan Clark. Secret of the Andes

An Indian boy who tends llamas in a hidden valley in Peru learns the traditions and secrets of his Inca ancestors.

1952

Eleanor Estes. Ginger Pye

The disappearance of a new puppy named Ginger and the appearance of a mysterious man in a mustard yellow hat bring excitement into the lives of the Pye children.

1951

Elizabeth Yates. Amos Fortune, Free Man

The life of the eighteenth-century African prince who, after being captured by slave traders, was brought to Massachusetts where he was a slave until he was able to buy his freedom at the age of sixty.

1950

Marguerite de Angeli. The Door in the Wall

A crippled boy in fourteenth-century England proves his courage and earns recognition from the King.

1949

Marguerite Henry. King of the Wind

Sham and the stable boy Agba travel from Morocco to France to England where, at last, Sham's majesty is recognized and he becomes the "Godolphin Arabian," ancestor of the most superior Thoroughbred horses.

1948

William Pène du Bois. The Twenty-One Balloons

Relates the incredible adventures of Professor William Waterman Sherman who in 1883 sets off in a balloon across the Pacific, survives the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa, and is eventually picked up in the Atlantic.

1947

Carolyn S. Bailey. Miss Hickory

Relates the adventures of a country doll made of an apple-wood twig with a hickory nut for a head.

1946

Lois Lenski. Strawberry Girl

Ten-year-old Birdie can not wait to pick the strawberries her family has planted at their new home in the Florida backwoods.

1945

Robert Lawson. Rabbit Hill

New folks are coming to live in the Big House. The animals of Rabbit Hill wonder if they will plant a garden and thus be good providers.

1944

Esther Forbes. Johnny Tremain

Johnny Tremain, a silversmith's apprentice, takes part in the Boston Tea Party and the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

1943

Elizabeth Janet Gray. Adam of the Road

The adventures of eleven-year-old Adam as he travels the open roads of thirteenth-century England searching for his missing father, a minstrel, and his stolen red spaniel Nick.

1942

Walter D. Edmonds. The Matchlock Gun

In 1756, during the French and Indian War in upper New York state, ten-year-old Edward is determined to protect his home and family with the ancient, and much too heavy, Spanish gun that his father had given him before leaving home to fight the enemy.

1941

Armstrong Sperry. Call It Courage

Mafatu was afraid of and avoided the sea till everyone branded him a coward. He goes off in his canoe to conquer this fear.

1940

James Daugherty. Daniel Boone

1939

Elizabeth Enright. Thimble Summer

Shortly after nine year old Garnet Linden finds a silver thimble rains come and chase away the drought.  This is just the beginning of a summer of surprises for Garnet and her family.

1938

Kate Seredy. The White Stag

Retells the legendary story of the Huns' and Magyars' long migration from Asia to Europe where they hope to find a permanent home.

1937

Ruth Sawyer. Roller Skates

Liberated for a year from her parents' restrictions, ten-year-old Lucinda discovers true freedom in the care of her temporary guardians as she roller skates around the streets of turn-of-the-century New York.

1936

Carol Ryrie Brink. Caddie Woodlawn

Chronicles the adventures of eleven-year-old Caddie growing up with her six brothers and sisters on the Wisconsin frontier in the mid-nineteenth century.

1935

Monica Shannon. Dobry

A Bulgarian peasant boy must convince his mother that he is destined to be a sculptor, not a farmer.

1934

Cornelia Meigs. Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little

Women   Biography tracing the fascinating life of Louisa May Alcott from her happy childhood in Pennsylvania and Boston to her success as a writer of such classics as Little women.

1933

Elizabeth Lewis. Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze

In the 1920's a Chinese youth from the country comes to Chungking with his mother where the bustling city offers adventure and his apprenticeship to a coppersmith brings good fortune.

1932

Laura Adams Armer. Waterless Mountain

Younger Brother, a Navaho Indian boy, undergoes eight years of training in the ancient religion of his people and the practical knowledge of material existence.

1931

Elizabeth Coatsworth. The Cat Who Went to Heaven

A little cat comes to the home of a poor Japanese artist and, by humility and devotion, brings him good fortune.

1930

Rachel Field. Hitty, Her First Hundred Years

Hitty, a special doll, writes her memoirs describing her adventures and travels.

1929

Eric P Kelly. The Trumpeter of Krakow: A Tale of the Fifteenth Century

A Polish family in the Middle Ages guards a great secret treasure and a boy's memory of an earlier trumpeter of Krakow makes it possible for him to save his father.

1928

Dhan Mukerji. Gay-Neck, the Story of a Pigeon

The story of the training of a carrier pigeon and its service during the First World War, revealing the bird's courageous and spirited adventures over the housetops of an Indian village, in the Himalayan Mountains, and on the French battlefield.

1927

Will James. Smoky, the Cow Horse

The experiences of a mouse-colored horse from his birth in the wild, through his capture by humans and his work in the rodeo and on the range, to his eventual old age.

1926

Arthur Chrisman. Shen of the Sea

A series of fascinating Chinese stories, strong in humor and rich in Chinese wisdom, in which the author has caught admirably the spirit of Chinese life and thought.

1925

Charles Finger. Tales from Silver Lands

A collection of folktales of South and Central America.

1924

Charles Hawes. The Dark Frigate

In seventeenth-century England, orphaned Philip Marsham, forced to flee London after a terrible accident, finds himself in an even more difficult situation when his ship is taken over by pirates and he is forced to become a member of their crew.

1923

Hugh Lofting. The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle

When his colleague Long Arrow disappears, Dr . Dolittle sets off with his assistant, Tommy Stubbins, his dog, Jip, and Polynesia the parrot on an adventurous voyage over tropical seas to floating Spidermonkey Island.

1922

Hendrik Van Loon. The Story of Mankind

Chronicles the history of man and civilization from primitive beginnings to the current day.