Good Books --The Newbery Award

The Newbery Medal is given each year by the American Library Association to the "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children" in the previous year. Like the Caldecott Medal, there are usually several books that are runners-up to the Newbery Medal. These books are called Newbery Honor books.

Kira-Kira is the Newbery Award winning book for 2005. Written by Cynthia Kadoohata, this book chronicles the close friendahip of two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950's, and the despair when one sister develops leukemia.







This book and the following books are the Newbery Honor books for 2005. Al Capone Does My Shirts, by Gennifer Choldenko, is historical fiction. Set on Alcatraz Island, the main character's father is a prison warden, and the family lives on the island.




Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy is the story of a girl whose family is being pushed out of their home because the townspeople want that area for tourism. This Honor book is written by Gary Schmidt.







The Voice That Challenged the Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights, written by Russell Freedman, tells the life story of the singer Marion Anderson. It describes her famous 1939 Lincoln Memorial performance after being refused the right to perfoorm at Washington's Constitution Hall because she was black.