| Year | Author | Title |
| 2004 |
Kate DiCamillo |
The Tale of Despereaux |
| 2003 |
Avi |
Crispin: The Cross of Lead |
| 2002 |
Linda Sue Park |
A Single Shard |
| 2001 |
Richard Peck |
A Year Down Yonder |
| 2000 |
Christopher Paul Curtis |
Bud, Not Buddy |
| 1999 |
Louis Sachar |
Holes |
| 1998 |
Karen Hesse |
Out of the Dust |
| 1997 |
Elaine Konigsburg |
The View from Saturday |
| 1996 |
Karen Cushman |
The Midwife's Apprentice |
| 1995 |
Sharon Creech |
Walk Two Moons |
| 1994 |
Lois Lowry |
The Giver |
| 1993 |
Cynthia Rylant |
Missing May |
| 1992 |
Phyllis R. Naylor |
Shiloh |
| 1991 |
Jerry Spinelli |
Maniac Magee |
| 1990 |
Lois Lowry |
Number the Stars |
| 1989 |
Paul Fleischman |
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices |
| 1988 |
Russell Freedman |
Lincoln: A Photobiography |
| 1987 |
Sid Fleischman |
The Whipping Boy |
| 1986 |
Patricia MacLachlan |
Sarah, Plain and Tall |
| 1985 |
Robin McKinley |
The Hero and the Crown |
| 1984 |
Beverly Cleary |
Dear Mr. Henshaw |
| 1983 |
Cynthia Voigt |
Dicey's Song |
| 1982 |
Nancy Willard |
A Visit to William Blake's Inn |
| 1981 |
Katherine Paterson |
Jacob Have I Loved |
| 1980 |
Joan Blos |
A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal |
| 1979 |
Ellen Raskin |
The Westing Game |
| 1978 |
Katherine Paterson |
Bridge to Terabithia |
| 1977 |
Mildred Taylor |
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry |
| 1976 |
Susan Cooper |
The Grey King |
| 1975 |
Virginia Hamilton |
M.C. Higgins, the Great |
| 1974 |
Paula Fox |
The Slave Dancer |
| 1973 |
Jean C. George |
Julie of the Wolves |
| 1972 |
Robert C. O'Brien |
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH |
| 1971 |
Betsy Byars |
The Summer of the Swans |
| 1970 |
William H. Armstrong |
Sounder |
| 1969 |
Lloyd Alexander |
The High King |
| 1968 |
Elaine Konigsburg |
From the Mixerd-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler |
| 1967 |
Irene Hunt |
Up a Road Slowly |
| 1966 |
Elizabeth Borton de Treviņo |
I, Juān de Pareja |
| 1965 |
Maia Wojciechowska |
Shadow of a Bull |
| 1964 |
Emily C. Neville |
It's Like This, Cat |
| 1963 |
Madeleine L'Engle |
A Wrinkle in Time |
| 1962 |
Elizabeth G. Speare |
The Bronze Bow |
| 1961 |
Scott O'Dell |
Island of the Blue Dolphins |
| 1960 |
Joseph Krumgold |
Onion John |
| 1959 |
Elizabeth G. Speare |
The Witch of Blackbird Pond |
| 1958 |
Harold V. Keith |
Rifles for Watie |
| 1957 |
Virginia Sorenson |
Miracles on Maple Hill |
| 1956 |
Jean Lee Latham |
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch |
| 1955 |
Meindert DeJong |
The Wheel on the School |
| 1954 |
Joseph Krumgold |
. . . And Now Miguel |
| 1953 |
Ann Nolan Clark |
Secret of the Andes |
| 1952 |
Eleanor Estes |
Ginger Pye |
| 1951 |
Elizabeth Yates |
Amos Fortune, Free Man |
| 1950 |
Marguerite de Angeli |
The Door in the Wall |
| 1949 |
Marguerite Henry |
King of the Wind |
| 1948 |
William Pčne de Bois |
The Twenty-One Balloons |
| 1947 |
Carolyn S. Bailey |
Miss Hickory |
| 1946 |
Lois Lenski |
Strawberry Girl |
| 1945 |
Robert Lawson |
Rabbit Hill |
| 1944 |
Esther Forbes |
Johnny Tremain |
| 1943 |
Elizabeth Janet Gray |
Adam of the Road |
| 1942 |
Walter D. Edmonds |
The Matchlock Gun |
| 1941 |
Armstrong Sperry |
Call It Courage |
| 1940 |
James Daugherty |
Daniel Boone |
| 1939 |
Elizabeth Enright |
Thimble Summer |
| 1938 |
Katy Seredy |
The White Stag |
| 1937 |
Ruth Sawyer |
Roller Skates |
| 1936 |
Carol Ryrie Brink |
Caddie Woodlawn |
| 1935 |
Monica Shannon |
Dobry |
| 1934 |
Cornelia Meigs |
Invincible Louisa |
| 1933 |
Elizabeth Lewis |
Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze |
| 1932 |
Laura Armer |
Waterless Mountain |
| 1931 |
Elizabeth Coatsworth |
The Cat Who Went To Heaven |
| 1930 |
Rachel Field |
Hitty, Her First Hundred Years |
| 1929 |
Eric P. Kelly |
The Trumpeter of Krakow |
| 1928 |
Dhan Mukerji |
Gay-Neck |
| 1927 |
Will James |
Smoky |
| 1926 |
Arthur Chrisman |
Shen of the Sea |
| 1925 |
Charles Finger |
Tales from Silver Lands |
| 1924 |
Charles Hawes |
The Dark Frigate |
| 1923 |
Hugh Lofting |
The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle |
| 1922 |
Hendrik van Loon |
The Story of Mankind |
