Explanation of a List

I have added a list of the Newbery award winners I have read thus far...I decided over winter break that I would read all of the books that have ever won the award. Not because I think they are all wonderful--in fact, I think that The Tale of Despereaux is one of the most boring kid's books I have ever read. I want to read them all because I think, as Erin said, it will make me "a well-informed teacher." (or something like that) Really, it seems like it is a good representation of where children's literature has come in the past 84 years, and I have already discovered a couple that I really liked but probably would have never otherwise read (The Twenty-One Balloons and Lincoln: A Photobiography). Not that I think that everyone in the world, or every teacher (goodness knows there's not enough time once you're actually teaching, at least in the beginning) or even everyone who likes kid's books should be forced to read them all, but it might be fun to pick up an obscure one at a thrift store or a book sale, just to see what some people thought was the best children's book one year.

**trivia: Lincoln: A Photobiography is the only non-fiction book to win the Newbery medal in the last 50 years. (not counting the two poetry books that have won)

Something to mention while introducing my sort of quest is that I am not trying to read all of the books that have the little Newbery seal on them. Some of them are Medal winners and some of them are honor books. There is one Medal winner every year, but most years have at least two honor books....while I have already read a bunch of honor books throughout the years, and think some of them are great (The Princess Academy, The Little House series), that is waaaay too many books to try to read in any conceivable amount of time, so I'm sticking to only the Medal winners! Stay tuned to see how I do, and what I think of the books along the way!

FYI: The Newbery Medal is given to "the most distinguished American children's book published the previous year," while the Caldecott Medal is given to "the artist who has created the most distinguished picture book of the year"--someday, I might tackle the Caldecott, but not until I meet the challenge of Mount Newbery!