Debating the Decades: Take our 1990s Poll and See the Results from the 2000-2009 Survey
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The results are in from our second “Debating the Decades” poll! In our first poll, we asked Heavy Medal readers to cast votes on Newbery books from the 2010s. Those results are here. That poll covered the years 2000 – 2009. Readers weighed in on ten books in each of three categories: Newbery Medal Books, Honor Books, and selected Non-Newbery titles.. With each group, readers picked the top book in three different categories: Their Personal Favorite, the one they thought was most popular with Child Readers, and the book they felt represented the highest level of Literary Quality. Results are at the bottom of this post.
Now it’s time for “Debating the Decades” part 3. This time we’ll go back another ten years, to the 1990s. I was 30 in 1990, just four years into my librarian career. I’m not sure if Emily was born yet? But great books stand the test of time, so we’re certain that many Heavy Medal readers, even the ones of Emily’s generation, will have read a lot of the excellent 90s titles on our poll. You can cast your votes here between now and December 15th.
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For now, Emily and I will share our reactions to the results from the 2000s poll. And hope that others will join us in the comments section.
STEVEN: The first thing I noticed is that there is a clear winner in the “Child Favorites” in all three categories. Emily, do you agree that DESPEREAUX, WINN-DIXIE, and THE LIGHTNING THIEF are that much more popular with kids?
EMILY: Firstly, I want everyone to know that I was born in 1990 and clearly read Newbery winners by the age of two. I agree with WINN-DIXIE and THE LIGHTNING THIEF however DESPEREAUX always ends up being a dud for me. I did a 3rd-6th grade book club for five years and it’s the ONLY title kids gave a giant thumbs down to! And kids NEVER check it out when I recommend it. I feel like BUD, NOT BUDDY is still a kid favorite.
STEVEN: I’m curious what you picked for your personal favorites Emily. In fact, I’ll try to guess and you can tell me how close I got. I’m going to say you picked: BUD, NOT BUDDY from Medal books, AL CAPONE DOES MY SHIRTS from Honors, and ESPERANZA RISING from the books that didn’t win anything. Am I close?
EMILY: One out of three Steven, nice. Yes BUD, NOT BUDDY was great but THE GRAVEYARD BOOK wins, I mean you have to enjoy when a spooky book actually wins. AL CAPONE FOREVER but AFTER TUPAC AND D FOSTER was a close second. CHASING VERMEER is one of my all-time favorite non Newbery winners. I recommend that all the time still. I’m currently reading MONA LISA VANISHES and I just keep thinking about CHASING VERMEER.
OK for you, I’m thinking: GOOD MASTERS, SWEET LADIES for Medal books, then also AL CAPONE with Honors, and lastly GREGOR THE OVERLANDER with no Newbery. How’d I do?
STEVEN: I do like all of those, but nope, you’re 0 for 3. My personal favorite among the winners is A YEAR DOWN YONDER…Grandma Dowdle is one of my favorite characters ever. PRINCESS ACADEMY is my Honor choice. And for non-winners: LOVE THAT DOG…such a great way to introduce poetry in a story that you really care about (unless you don’t read dead dog books).
EMILY: Well that’s surprising Steven! Also I would love to hear your thoughts on GOOD MASTERS SWEET LADIES, I know it got like NO votes, did you not even vote for it? I mean poetry! I’ve never been a fan personally…
STEVEN: I do think GOOD MASTERS is an amazing book and was so impressed that that year’s Committee gave it a Medal. They had to know it was never going to fly off the shelves, but stuck to their “literary quality” and “individually distinct” guns. And our Heavy Medal voters also gave it a very respectable “quality” ranking.
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EMILY: I was also surprised THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX did not get a better quality rating. I feel like that’s a formulaic “perfect” Newbery winner. Kate DiCamillo really knows what the kids want!
STEVEN: I also think Kate D. knows what Newbery Committees want. Not that I really think she writes for that purpose, but some of her books seem to have just the right amount of visible artistry, where you can see the author’s choices, without being overly artsy (so you still care about the story).
EMILY: One of the hardest, but most fun categories is figuring out books that didn’t win the Newbery, especially now that there’s no Heavy Medal archives this far back. I would love to know if anyone has any write-in nominations for the 1990 – 1999 range.
STEVEN: Yes, I thought it should have been easy for me, since I’m so old and all, but I didn’t remember stuff all that well. I mean, I know I thought BELLE PRATER’S BOY was great, but I could hardly remember anything about it (maybe there was something about a haircut?) until I read the summary and it came back to me. We’d love to hear what other books Heavy Medal readers remember fondly.
So please share any thoughts about the new 1990’s poll and/or the results of the 2000’s poll in the comments. And cast your 1990’s votes here by December 15th.
| Year | Newbery Medal Books | Personal Favorite | Children’s Favorite | Highest Quality |
| 2000 | BUD NOT BUDDY | 14% | 6% | 23% |
| 2001 | A YEAR DOWN YONDER | 21% | 2% | 6% |
| 2002 | A SINGLE SHARD | 8% | 0% | 9% |
| 2003 | CRISPIN | 3% | 0% | 4% |
| 2004 | THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX | 20% | 73% | 16% |
| 2005 | KIRA-KIRA | 2% | 0% | 5% |
| 2006 | CRISS CROSS | 2% | 0% | 3% |
| 2007 | THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY | 1% | 0% | 1% |
| 2008 | GOOD MASTERS! SWEET LADIES! | 0% | 0% | 17% |
| 2009 | THE GRAVEYARD BOOK | 29% | 20% | 15% |
| Year | Newbery Honor Books | Personal Favorite | Children’s Favorite | Highest Quality |
| 2000 | OUR ONLY MAY AMELIA | 7% | 0% | 3% |
| 2001 | BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE | 27% | 64% | 22% |
| 2002 | EVERYTHING ON A WAFFLE | 4% | 1% | 2% |
| 2003 | HOOT | 5% | 14% | 4% |
| 2004 | OLIVE’S OCEAN | 1% | 0% | 5% |
| 2005 | AL CAPONE DOES MY SHIRTS | 8% | 11% | 5% |
| 2006 | THE PRINCESS ACADEMY | 20% | 8% | 8% |
| 2007 | PENNY FROM HEAVEN | 2% | 0% | 2% |
| 2008 | THE WEDNESDAY WARS | 24% | 2% | 36% |
| 2009 | AFTER TUPAC AND D FOSTER | 4% | 0% | 12% |
| Year | Non-Newbery Books | Personal Favorite | Children’s Favorite | Highest Quality |
| 2000 | THE BIRCHBARK HOUSE | 7% | 0% | 22% |
| 2001 | ESPERANZA RISING | 16% | 3% | 31% |
| 2002 | LOVE THAT DOG | 19% | 8% | 12% |
| 2003 | GOONEY BIRD GREENE | 5% | 3% | 0% |
| 2004 | GREGOR THE OVERLANDER | 14% | 4% | 1% |
| 2005 | CHASING VERMEER | 13% | 3% | 1% |
| 2006 | THE LIGHTNING THIEF | 15% | 73% | 7% |
| 2007 | THE YEAR OF THE DOG | 4% | 1% | 0% |
| 2008 | THE LEMONADE WAR | 0% | 6% | 0% |
| 2009 | CHAINS | 7% | 1% | 26% |
Filed under: Book Discussion, Newbery History
About Steven Engelfried
Steven Engelfried retired from full-time library work a couple years ago and now works as a part-time Youth Librarian at the West Linn Public Library in Oregon. He served on the 2010 Newbery committee, chaired the 2013 Newbery Committee, and also served on the 2002 Caldecott committee. You can reach him at sengelfried@yahoo.com.
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I didn’t see a place to write-in 90s books, but I would have suggested Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse (1996).
Great choice, Leonard. I remember thinking that was a likely Caldecott book that year too, but it came up empty.
We don’t actually have a write-in space on the poll, so sharing them in these comments is great.
Thank you so much for including The Winter Room. I had never read that particular Paulsen until very recently, and his depiction of farm life in the 1930s as that way of life was about to change forever resonated with me very strongly. The storyline reminded me of stories that I had been told by my own father, and I loved it so much. I’m sure that I’m in the minority on this, but I’d much rather read this Paulsen than the Paulsen that wrote Hatchet. Pity that The Winter Room came out the same year as Number The Stars (without the Lowry, Paulsen might very well have won).
Also, Belle Prater’s Boy was an Honor book in it’s year, and you have it under non-winners. I’ve always found it interesting that it was the part of the trifecta of books about dealing with death and loss set in Appalachia (Missing May, Walk Two Moons, and Belle Prater’s Boy), and the only one that didn’t win (it’s my favorite of the three, and my pick for best of 1997. Sorry Konigsberg fans.).
Thanks for catching my mistake on BELLE PRATER’S BOY. It really was that good, wasn’t it? We just replaced it on the Non-Newbery list with FRINDLE by Andrew Clements.
My apologies to anyone who has already cast a vote for BELLE PRATER (we have 4 so far). If you are one of the 4 people who have, feel free to open the link again and cast another vote in that Non-Newbery category…sorry about that.
I didn’t realize how hard part three was going to be! The Giver, Shiloh, Holes, and Walk Two Moons are some of my favorites that I read. Many were years after they won the award, but I remember being in 7th grade and devouring The Giver and Walk Two Moons (and then getting in trouble for reading ahead). The honors list is great, too! Watson’s Going to Birmingham will always be a favorite.
Another mistake corrected: The results from the 2000-2009 poll, which were missing from the bottom of today’s post, have now been added. Sorry for the delay…
Thanks! This is so much fun!
I have read and love all of the Newbery winners from the 90s, but part of me was still looking for a way to vote for Holes three times as my personal favorite.
SAMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE