The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association 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 was proposed by Publishers Weekly editor 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 an author giving his work (a book) to a boy and a girl to read.

In 1923 the award went to Hugh Lofting’s The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle, the second Doctor Doolittle book in which the Doctor meets Tommy Stubbins, the young son of the local cobbler, who becomes his new assistant. Tommy learns how to speak animal languages and becomes involved in the Doctor’s quest to find Long Arrow, the greatest naturalist in the world.

In 1924 the award went to Charles Boardman Hawes’ The Dark Frigate, a rousing tale with bloody battles, brutal buccaneers, and a bold, spirited hero, to enthrall young listeners in search of seafaring adventure.

Charles Finger won the award in 1925 for Tales from Silver Lands, a collection of nineteen folktales from the native populations of Central and South America.

The 1927 award went to Dhan Gopal Mukerji’s Gay-Neck, The Story of a Pigeon. For a pigeon, life is a repetition of two activities: a quest for food and avoidance of attacks by its enemies. If the hero in this story repeats his escapes from attacks by hawks, it is because that is the sort of mishap that becomes chronic in the case of pigeons.

In 1932 the award went to Laura Adams Armer’s Waterless Mountain, the story of a Navajo Indian living in Arizona in the 1920s who wishes to follow in the footsteps of his uncle and become a medicine man.

In addition to these titles currently at Faded Page, more Newbery Award titles are coming. We invite you to come join us and proof a few pages to help us bring more public domain titles like these to Canada. Information about volunteering is available at our companion site, Distributed Proofreaders Canada.