Newbery Medal

Newbery Medal

The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. Named for John Newbery, an 18th century English publisher of juvenile books, the Newbery Medal was proposed by Frederic G. Melcher in 1921, making it the first children's book award in the world. The medal was designed by Rene Paul Chambellan and depicts on an author giving his work (a book) to a boy and a girl to read.

The Newbery and the Caldecott Medal are considered the two most prestigious awards for children's literature in the United States. When the winner is announced each January, bookstores sell out, libraries order copies and teachers add the book to their lesson plans. Many bookstores and libraries have Newbery sections; popular television shows interview the winners; textbooks includes lists of Newbery winners, and many master's and doctoral theses are written about them.

Beside the one annual Medalist, the committee identifies a variable number of worthy runners-up as Newbery Honor Books. Though the Newbery Honor was initiated in 1971, specially cited runners-up for the Newbery Medal from previous years were retroactively named Newbery Honor books. As few as zero and as many as eight have been named, but from 1938 the number is one to five annual Honors.