Newbery Medal – 2008 Winner

Title: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices From a Medieval Village
Author: Laura Amy Schlitz
Illustrator: Robert Byrd
Publisher: Candlewick Press

A collection of short one-person plays featuring characters, between 10 and 15 years old, who live in or near a 13th-century English manor.

Newbery Medal

At the American Library Association Conference in June 1921, during a discussion with children’s librarians, Frederic G. Melcher, the founder of Children’s Book Week, suggested that the librarians, as a group, could strongly influence children’s book selection and distribution. He believed they should encourage authors of outstanding ability to write more meaningful children’s books. He also proposed that a medal be awarded each year by the Children’s Librarian Section for the most distinguished book for children written by a citizen or resident of the United States and published during the preceding year. He recommended that the medal be called the "John Newbery Medal" in honor of the 18th Century bookseller who is credited with recognizing children’s unique reading interests, and who sought the authors to write for them. In 1922, the Executive Board of the American Library Association accepted Mr. Melcher’s offer to present the Newbery Medal and set in motion the procedures necessary to select the first winning book.

2008 Newbery Medal Honor Books

Title: Elijah of Buxton
Author: Christopher Paul Curtis
Publisher: Scholastic

Title: Feathers
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Publisher: Putnam

Title: The Wednesday Wars
Author: Gary D. Schmidt
Publisher: Clarion Books