Newbery Medal and Honor Books

Hatchet

by Gary Paulsen
Grade 4-8

Thirteen year old Brian is going to visit his father in a small plane.  When the pilot suffers a heart attack and the plane crashes, Brian is left on his own in the wilderness.  The only tool he has to help him survive is the Hatchet that his mother gave him.  This book tells of his adventures as he attempts to gain food and shelter in the wild. 

Bridge to Tearabithia

by Katherine Patterson
Grade 4-8

All Jess wants is to be the fastest runner in the fifth grade.  He never imagines that he will become best friends with the new girl that beats him in a race.  Leslie and Jess become inseparable and create an imaginary world of their own.  They are very happy with the world they have created until there is a tragic accident. 

Bud, Not Buddy

by Christopher Paul Curtis
Grade 4-7

When Bud's mom dies he finds himself in one foster home after another with nothing but bad stories.  He does not know who his father is but his mother has left him some clues that he keeps in a suitcase and never goes anywhere without.  After one particularly bad placement he is determined to find his father no matter what it takes.

Holes

by Louis Sachar
Grade 4-8
Stanley Yelnats has never had any luck. When he is mistakenly accused of stealing a pair of sneakers, he is sent to Camp Green Lake which is anything but green. The only thing that you can do at Camp Green Lake is dig holes in the hot desert sun all day long. The story flashes back and forth between past and present and tells of how the once beautiful lake town has become a desert like prison for troubled boys.

Hoot

by Carl Hiaasen

Grade 4-8

Roy has to move to yet another school because of his dad's job.  He finds himself in Florida and wants to go back to Montana. On his way to school one day as the local bully is beating him up, he notices a boy with no shoes running from the bus.  He continues to see this boy and becomes curious.  His quest for answers leads him to become involved in a plan to stop the construction of a pancake house that will threaten the home of endangered owls. 

Rules

by Cynthia Lord
Grade 4-7

Catherine just wants to have a friend that she can spend the summer with.  When a girl her age moves in next door she can't wait to meet her.  The problem is David.  Catherine's brother David has autism and often does things that embarrass her.  She makes up rules for David to follow like "No toys in the fish tank".  Catherine does find a new friend that summer, but in an unlikely place. 

The Great Gilly Hopkins

by Katherine Paterson
Grade 5-7


Gilly is an eleven year old girl that has been bounced from foster home to foster home her entire life.  She keeps a picture of her mother and waits for the day that she will come and get her.  When she is placed in the care of a new foster parent named Maime Trotter she has had enough.  Maime is very large and makes her do things like clean!  She creates a plan to get back to where her mother lives and she will do anything to get there. 

Because of Winn-Dixie

by Kate DiCamillo
Grade 4-6

Because of Winn-Dixie is the story of a girl that has just moved to a trailer park in Florida. Her father is a preacher and they travel a lot. Her mother left them when she was very you and she doesn't remember much about her. When she sees a stray dog that is making trouble in the supermarket she claims him as her own and begs her dad to let her keep him. With her new found friend she tries to convince her dad to tell her ten things about her mother who he never talks about.