O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction

I have a long-standing goal of reading all the Newbery award winners.  This began when I was young and was renewed when Brian was in elementary school and decided to take up the challenge.  I read along with him then, but as he grew older and moved on to other reading material, I also moved on.  Again.  A few years ago, I decided that I would focus again on this perpetual challenge and try to knock out a few more each year.  To date I’ve read 64 of the 91 books so honored.  So I’m making progress.  Early in 2011 I realized that since my favorite genre (by far) is historical fiction, I should be reading the books given the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction.  (Because who doesn’t need more reading challenges in their life?)  To be eligible for the award, a book must have been published as a book intended for children or young people, it must be set in the New World (Canada, Central or South America, or the United States), it must be published by a publisher in the United States, and it must be written in English by a citizen of the United States.

Before I decided to read them all, I had only read 5 of the 29, so the rest have been read during 2011-2012.  Herein is the list with my star rating from my goodreads.com reviews.  I read some really excellent books and a couple of duds, but for the most part, the books that have received this award have all been worthy.  I enjoyed stretching myself and getting them all read.  Someday I’ll finish all the Newberys.

2012, Jack Gantos, Dead End in Norvelt, 2 stars
2011, Rita Williams-Garcia, One Crazy Summer, 4 stars
2010, Matt Phelan, The Storm in the Barn, 3 stars
2009, Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains, 5 stars
2008, Christopher Paul Curtis, Elijah of Buxton, 3 stars
2007, Ellen Klages, The Green Glass Sea, 3 stars
2006, Louise Erdrich, The Game of Silence, 4 stars
2005, A LaFaye, Worth, 5 stars
2004, Richard Peck, The River Between Us, 4 stars
2003, Shelley Pearsall, Trouble Don’t Last, 3 stars
2002, Mildred D. Taylor, The Land, 4 stars
2001, Janet Taylor Lisle, The Art of Keeping Cool, 4 stars
2000, Miriam Bat-Ami, Two Suns in the Sky, 2 stars
1999, Harriette Robinet, Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule, 4 stars
1998, Karen Hesse, Out of the Dust, 4 stars
1997, Katherine Paterson, Jip, His Story, 4 stars
1996, Theodore Taylor, The Bomb, 4 stars
1995, Graham Salisbury, Under the Blood Red Sun, 3 stars
1994, Paul Fleischman, Bull Run, 4 stars
1993, Michael Dorris, Morning Girl, 3 stars
1992, Mary Downing Hahn, Stepping on the Cracks, 4 stars
1991, Pieter Van Raven, A Time of Troubles, 4 stars
1990, Carolyn Reeder, Shades of Grey, 4 stars
1989, Lyll Becerra de Jenkins, The Honorable Prison, 5 stars
1988, Patricia Beatty, Charley Skedaddle, 3 stars
1987, Scott O’Dell, Streams to the River, River to the Sea, 3 stars
1986, Patricia MacLachlan, Sarah, Plain and Tall, 4 stars
1985, Avi, The Fighting Ground, 4 stars
1984, Elizabeth George Speare, The Sign of the Beaver, 3 stars