LibGuides: Children's Books: Classics and Award Winners

Classics and Award Winners

Picture Books
Chapter Books

Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina Delightful children's classic about a peddler of caps who runs into trouble when a pack of monkeys steal his wares.
Call Number: JUV FIC Slobodkina E
ISBN: 9780812422122
Publication Date: 1979-02-01
Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans (Illustrator) "In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines the smallest one was Madeline."     Nothing frightens Madeline--not tigers, not even mice. With its endearing, courageous heroine, cheerful humor, and wonderful, whimsical drawings of Paris, the Madeline stories are true classics that continue to charm readers, even after 75 years! Ludwig Bemelmans (1898-1962) was the author of the beloved Madeline books, including Madeline, a Caldecott Honor Book, and Madeline's Rescue, winner of the Caldecott Medal.
Call Number: JUV PIC Bemelmans L
ISBN: 9780670445806
Publication Date: 1958-09-30
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams; William Nicholson (Illustrator) Illus. in full color. The timeless story of a toy rabbit that becomes real through the love of a child appears for the first time in an elegantly slipcased picture book and audio-cassette format. Cassette running time- 25 minutes.
Call Number: JUV PIC Bianco M
ISBN: 9780385375665
Publication Date: 2014-01-28
Corduroy by Don Freeman A winning, completely childlike picture book in which a stuffed bear waiting hopefully in a toy department finds a home with a little girl. Endearing, brightly coloured pictures.
Call Number: JUV PIC Freeman D
ISBN: 9780140501735
Publication Date: 1976-09-30
Mushroom in the Rain by Mirra Ginsburg; Jose Aruego (Illustrator); Ariane Dewey (Illustrator) Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey have illustrated many books together--he draws the outlines and designs the pages; she paints the illustrations. Aruego, a native of the Philippines, was a lawyer before becoming an illustrator, and now lives in New York City. Dewey was born in Chicago and also lives in New York City. Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey have illustrated many books together--he draws the outlines and designs the pages; she paints the illustrations. Aruego, a native of the Philippines, was a lawyer before becoming an illustrator, and now lives in New York City. Dewey was born in Chicago and also lives in New York City.
Call Number: JUV PIC Ginsburg M
ISBN: 0027362418
Publication Date: 1987-09-30
Good Night, Owl! by Pat Hutchins (Illustrator) Owl can't get to sleep in Pat Hutchins's beloved Good-Night, Owl! How is Owl supposed to sleep the day away with the bees buzzing, the woodpecker pecking, the doves cooing, and the squirrels crunching? But when night falls and everything is finally quiet, suddenly there's a new sound--and it's coming from Owl! From author-illustrator Pat Hutchins, this cumulative bedtime story with a surprise ending will send little ones off to sleep with a smile.
Call Number: JUV PIC Hutchins P
ISBN: 0027459004
Publication Date: 1972-09-01
The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper (Retold by); Ruth Sanderson (Illustrator); Mabel C. Bragg When the other engines refuse, the Little Blue Engine tries to pull a stranded train full of dolls, toys, and good food over the mountain.
Call Number: JUV PIC Piper W
ISBN: 0822873737
Publication Date: 1976-01-01
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak (Illustrator) From the acclaimed author-artist Maurice Sendak comes a Caldecott Honor-winning tale of a fantastical dream world. This comic fantasy will delight readers of all ages with playful illustrations and an imaginative world only Sendak could create. In the Night Kitchen is the classic story of Mickey's adventures in the bakers' kitchen as they prepare our morning cake. "Milk in the batter! Milk in the batter! We bake cake and nothing's the matter!" the bakers sing. The bakers in the night kitchen need more milk for their batter, but then Mickey falls into the cake! They decide to put him in the oven anyway, but Mickey has different plans. He escapes in a plane made of bread dough and helps the bakers find the milk at last. "A celebration of the primal, sensory world of childhood and an affirmation of its imaginative potency," proclaimed Children's Books and Their Creators.
Call Number: JUV PIC PZ7.S47 In
ISBN: 9780060266691
Publication Date: 1996-02-13
Abiyoyo by Pete Seeger; Michael Hays (Illustrator) Once there was a little boy who played the ukelele. Wherever he'd go he'd play,Clink, clunk, clonk.His father was a magician. Wherever he'd go, he'd make things disappear,Zoop! Zoop!Soon the townspeople grew tired of the boy's noise and his father's tricks, and banished both of them to the edge of town.There they lived, until one day the terrible giant Abiyoyo appeared. He was as tall as a tree, and it was said that he could eat people up. Everyone was terrified, except the boy and his father, and they came up with a plan to save the town...Peter Seeger's storysong, made up for his own children, finds its perfect match in Michael Hays's masterful paintings. Together they make a richly vivid and exciting story.
Call Number: JUV PIC Seeger P
ISBN: 0027814904
Publication Date: 1986-04-01
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig In a moment of fright Sylvester the donkey asks his magic pebble to turn him into a rock but then cannot hold the pebble to wish himself back to normal again.
Call Number: JUV PIC Steig W
ISBN: 9780525623007
Publication Date: 1973-10-01
Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg (Illustrator) The game under the tree looked like a hundred others Peters and Judy had at home. But they were bored and restless and, looking for something interesting to do, thought they'd give Jumanji a try. Little did they know when they unfolded its ordinary-looking playing board that they were about to be plunged into the most exciting and bizare adventure of their lives. In his second book for children, Chris Van Allsburg again explores the ever-shifting line between fantasy and reality with this story about a game that comes startingly to life. His marvelous drawings beautifully convey a mix of the everyday and the extraordinary, as a quiet house is taken over by an exotic jungle.
Call Number: JUV PIC Van Allsburg C
ISBN: 0395304482
Publication Date: 1981-04-27
The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward (Illustrator) Winner of the 1953 Caldecott Medal  Johnny Orchard brings home a playful bear cub that soon becomes huge and a nuisance to the neighbors.
Call Number: JUV PIC Ward L
ISBN: 0395148065
Publication Date: 1952-06-01
Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel; Blair Lent (Illustrator) Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo- chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo! Three decades and more than one million copies later children still love hearing about the boy with the long name who fell down the well. Arlene Mosel and Blair Lent's classic re-creation of an ancient Chinese folktale has hooked legions of children, teachers, and parents, who return, generation after generation, to learn about the danger of having such an honorable name as Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo. Tikki Tikki Tembo is the winner of the 1968 Boston Globe - Horn Book Award for Picture Books.
Call Number: JUV PZ8.1.M8346 Ti
ISBN: 9780805006629
Publication Date: 1968-03-15

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater; Florence Atwater This Newbery Honor-winning novel, with over 1 million copies sold, now celebrates its 80th anniversary with a new look and interior illustrations! Mr. Popper's Penguins is one of the handful of American books for children that has attained the status of a classic. A humble house painter is sent a male penguin by the great Admiral Drake and, thanks to the arrival of a female penguin, soon has twelve penguins living in his house. First published in 1938, Mr. Popper's Penguins has amused and enchanted generations of children and their parents.
Call Number: JUV FIC Atwater R
ISBN: 0316058432
Publication Date: 1992-11-02
Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey A Newbery Award winner! Most dolls lead a comfortable but unadventurous life. This was true of Miss Hickory until the fateful day that her owner, Ann, moves from her New Hampshire home to attend school in Boston--leaving Miss Hickory behind. For a small doll whose body is an apple-wood twig and whose head is a hickory nut, the prospect of spending a New Hampshire winter alone is frightening indeed. In this classic modern day fairy tale, what's a doll to do?
Call Number: JUV FIC Bailey C
ISBN: 014030956X
Publication Date: 1977-05-26
The Wish Giver by Bill Brittain; Andrew Glass (Illustrator)
Call Number: JUV FIC Brittain B
ISBN: 0060206861
Publication Date: 1983-04-01
Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated . . ." With her grandmother's taunt, Louise knew that she, like the biblical Esau, was the despised elder twin. Caroline, her selfish younger sister, was the one everyone loved. Growing up on a tiny Chesapeake Bay island in the early 1940s, angry Louise reveals how Caroline robbed her of everything: her hopes for schooling, her friends, her mother, even her name. While everyone pampered Caroline, Wheeze (her sister's name for her) began to learn the ways of the watermen and the secrets of the island, especially of old Captain Wallace, who had mysteriously returned after fifty years. The war unexpectedly gave this independent girl a chance to fulfill her childish dream to work as a watermen alongside her father. But the dream did not satisfy the woman she was becoming. Alone and unsure, Louise began to fight her way to a place where Caroline could not reach. Renowned author Katherine Paterson here chooses a little-known area off the Maryland shore as her setting for a fresh telling of the ancient story of an elder twin's lost birthright.
Call Number: JUV FIC Paterson K
ISBN: 0690040792
Publication Date: 1980-11-11
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin When an eccentric millionaire dies mysteriously, 16 very unlikely people are gathered together for the reading of the will--and what a will it is. A Newbery Medal-winning novel.
Call Number: JUV FIC Raskin E
ISBN: 0525423206
Publication Date: 1978-06-01
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare Sixteen-year-old Kit Tyler is marked by suspicion and disapproval from the moment she arrives on the unfamiliar shores of colonial Connecticut in 1687. Alone and desperate, she has been forced to leave her beloved home on the island of Barbados and join a family she has never met. Torn between her quest for belonging and her desire to be true to herself, Kit struggles to survive in a hostile place. Just when it seems she must give up, she finds a kindred spirit. But Kit's friendship with Hannah Tupper, believed by the colonists to be a witch, proves more taboo than she could have imagined and ultimately forces Kit to choose between her heart and her duty. Elizabeth George Speare won the 1959 Newbery Medal for this portrayal of a heroine whom readers will admire for her unwavering sense of truth as well as her infinite capacity to love.
Call Number: JUV FIC Speare E
ISBN: 0395071143
Publication Date: 1958-12-01
The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare A 1984 Newbery Honor Book Although he faces responsibility bravely, thirteen-year-old Matt is more than a little apprehensive when his father leaves him alone to guard their new cabin in the wilderness. When a renegade white stranger steals his gun, Matt realizes he has no way to shoot game or to protect himself. When Matt meets Attean, a boy in the Beaver clan, he begins to better understand their way of life and their growing problem in adapting to the white man and the changing frontier. Elizabeth George Speare's Newbery Honor-winning survival story is filled with wonderful detail about living in the wilderness and the relationships that formed between settlers and natives in the 1700s. Now with an introduction by Joseph Bruchac.
Call Number: JUV FIC Speare E
ISBN: 0395338905
Publication Date: 1983-04-27
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli A Newbery Medal winning modern classic about a racially divided small town and a boy who runs. Jeffrey Lionel "Maniac" Magee might have lived a normal life if a freak accident hadn't made him an orphan. After living with his unhappy and uptight aunt and uncle for eight years, he decides to run--and not just run away, but run. This is where the myth of Maniac Magee begins, as he changes the lives of a racially divided small town with his amazing and legendary feats.
Call Number: JUV FIC Spinelli J
ISBN: 0316807222
Publication Date: 1990-04-02
The Cay by Theodore Taylor For fans of Hatchet and Island of the Blue Dolphins comes Theodore Taylor's classic bestseller and Lewis Carroll Shelf Award winner, The Cay.    Phillip is excited when the Germans invade the small island of Curaçao. War has always been a game to him, and he's eager to glimpse it firsthand-until the freighter he and his mother are traveling to the United States on is torpedoed.    When Phillip comes to, he is on a small raft in the middle of the sea. Besides Stew Cat, his only companion is an old West Indian, Timothy. Phillip remembers his mother's warning about black people: "They are different, and they live differently."     But by the time the castaways arrive on a small island, Phillip's head injury has made him blind and dependent on Timothy. "Mr. Taylor has provided an exciting story...The idea that all humanity would benefit from this special form of color blindness permeates the whole book...The result is a story with a high ethical purpose but no sermon."--New York Times Book Review   "A taut tightly compressed story of endurance and revelation...At once barbed and tender, tense and fragile--as Timothy would say, 'outrageous good.'"--Kirkus Reviews   * "Fully realized setting...artful, unobtrusive use of dialect...the representation of a hauntingly deep love, the poignancy of which is rarely achieved in children's literature."--School Library Journal, Starred   "Starkly dramatic, believable and compelling."--Saturday Review   "A tense and moving experience in reading."--Publishers Weekly   "Eloquently underscores the intrinsic brotherhood of man."--Booklist   "This is one of the best survival stories since Robinson Crusoe."--The Washington Star · A New York Times Best Book of the Year · A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year · A Horn Book Honor Book · An American Library Association Notable Book · A Publishers Weekly Children's Book to Remember · A Child Study Association's Pick of Children's Books of the Year · Jane Addams Book Award · Lewis Carroll Shelf Award · Commonwealth Club of California: Literature Award · Southern California Council on Literature for Children and Young People Award · Woodward School Annual Book Award · Friends of the Library Award, University of California at Irvine
Call Number: JUV FIC Taylor T
ISBN: 0385079060
Publication Date: 1987-11-17
Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers
Call Number: JUV FIC Travers P
ISBN: 0156576805
Publication Date: 1972-04-01
Charlotte's Web by E. B. White; Garth Williams (Illustrator); Kate DiCamillo Don't miss one of America's top 100 most-loved novels, selected by PBS's The Great American Read. This beloved book by E. B. White, author of Stuart Little and The Trumpet of the Swan, is a classic of children's literature that is "just about perfect." This paperback edition includes a foreword by two-time Newbery winning author Kate DiCamillo. Some Pig. Humble. Radiant. These are the words in Charlotte's Web, high up in Zuckerman's barn. Charlotte's spiderweb tells of her feelings for a little pig named Wilbur, who simply wants a friend. They also express the love of a girl named Fern, who saved Wilbur's life when he was born the runt of his litter. E. B. White's Newbery Honor Book is a tender novel of friendship, love, life, and death that will continue to be enjoyed by generations to come. It contains illustrations by Garth Williams, the acclaimed illustrator of E. B. White's Stuart Little and Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, among many other books. Whether enjoyed in the classroom or for homeschooling or independent reading, Charlotte's Web is a proven favorite.
Call Number: JUV FIC White E
ISBN: 9780064400558
Publication Date: 2012-04-10
The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen This critically acclaimed novel by award-winning author Jane Yolen is now available in a beautifully designed new edition. Hannah dreads going to her family's Passover Seder -- she's tired of hearing her relatives talk about the past. But when she opens the front door to symbolically welcome the prophet Elijah, she's transported to a Polish village in the year 1942, where she becomes caught up in the tragedy of the time.
Call Number: JUV FIC Yolen J
ISBN: 0670810274
Publication Date: 1988-10-01