| Date | Book | Author |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | New Kid | Jerry Craft |
| 2019 | Merci Suárez Changes Gears | Meg Medina |
| 2018 | Hello, Universe | Erin Entrada Kelly |
| 2017 | The Girl Who Drank the Moon | Kelly Barnhill |
| 2016 | Last Stop on Market Street | Matt de la Peña |
| 2015 | The Crossover | Kwame Alexander |
| 2014 | Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures | Kate DiCamillo |
| 2013 | The One and Only Ivan | Katherine Applegate |
| 2012 | Dead End in Norvelt * | Jack Gantos |
| 2011 | Moon Over Manifest * | Clare Vanderpool |
| 2010 | When You Reach Me * | Rebecca Stead |
| 2009 | The Graveyard Book | Neil Gaiman |
| 2008 | Good Master! Sweet Ladies! Voices from A Medieval Village | Laura Amy Schlitz |
| 2007 | Higher Power of Lucky * | Susan Patron |
| 2006 | Criss Cross | Lynne Rae Perkins |
| 2005 | Kira-Kira | Cynthia Kadohata |
| 2004 | The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread * | Kate DiCamillo |
| 2003 | Crispin: The Cross of Lead | Avi |
| 2002 | A Single Shard | Linda Sue Park |
| 2001 | A Year Down Yonder | Richard Peck |
| 2000 | Bud, Not Buddy | Christopheer Paul Curtis |
| 1999 | The Holes | Louis Sachar |
| 1998 | Out of the Dust * | Karen Hesse |
| 1997 | The View from Saturday | E. L. Koingsburg |
| 1996 | The Midwifes Apprentice | Karen Cushman |
| 1995 | Walk Two Moons | Sharon Creech |
| 1994 | The Giver * | Lois Lowry |
| 1993 | Missing May | Cynthia Rylant |
| 1992 | Shiloh | Phyllis Reynolds |
| 1991 | Maniac Magee | Jerry Spinelli |
| 1990 | Number the Stars * | Lois Lowry |
| 1989 | Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices * | Paul Fleischman |
| 1988 | Lincoln * | Freeman |
| 1987 | The Whipping Boy | Sid Fleischman |
| 1986 | Sarah, Plain and Tall * | Patricia MacLachlan |
| 1985 | The Hero and the Crown | Robin McKinley |
| 1984 | Dear Mr. Henshaw | Beverly Cleary |
| 1983 | Dicey's Song | Cynthia Voigt |
| 1982 | A Visit to William Blake's Inn | Nancy Willard |
| 1981 | Jacob Have I Loved * | Katherine Paterson |
| 1980 | A Gathering of Days | Joan W. Blos |
| 1979 | The Westing Game | Ellen Raskin |
| 1978 | Bridge to Terabithia * | Katherine Paterson |
| 1977 | Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry * | Mildred D. Taylor |
| 1976 | The Grey King | Susan Cooper |
| 1975 | M. C. Higgins, the Great | Virginia Hamilton |
| 1974 | The Slave Dancer * | Paula Fox |
| 1973 | Julie of the Wolves * | Jean Craighead George |
| 1972 | Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of N. I. M. H. | Robert C. O'Brien |
| 1971 | The Summer of the Swans * | Betsy Byars |
| 1970 | Sounder | William H. Armstrong |
| 1969 | The High King | Lloyd Alexander |
| 1968 | From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler * | E. L. Koingsburg |
| 1967 | Up a Road Slowly | Irene Hunt |
| 1966 | I, Juan de Pareja | Elizabeth Borton De Trevino |
| 1965 | Shadow of a Bull | Maia Wojciechowska |
| 1964 | It's Like This, Cat * | Emily Neville |
| 1963 | A Wrinkle in Time * | Madeleine L'Engle |
| 1962 | The Bronze Bow | Elizabeth George Speare |
| 1961 | Island of the Blue Dolphins * | Scott O'Dell |
| 1960 | Onion John | Joseph Krumgold |
| 1959 | The Witch of Blackbird Pond * | Elizabeth George Speare |
| 1958 | Rifles for Watie | Harold Keith |
| 1957 | Miracles on Maple Hill * | Virginia Sorensen |
| 1956 | Carry on, Mr. Bowditch * | Jean Lee Latham |
| 1955 | The Wheel on the School | Meindert DeJong |
| 1954 | And Now Miguel | Joseph Krumgold |
| 1953 | Secret of the Andes | Ann Nolan CLark |
| 1952 | Ginger Pye | Eleanor Estes |
| 1951 | Amos Fortune, Free Man | Elizabeth Yates |
| 1950 | The Door in the Wall * | Marguerite de Angeli |
| 1949 | King of the Wind | Marguerite Henry |
| 1948 | The Twenty-one Balloons | Willliam Pene de Bois |
| 1947 | Miss Hickory | Carolyn Sherwin Bailey |
| 1946 | Strawberry Girl | Lois Lenski |
| 1945 | Rabbit Hill | Robert Lawson |
| 1944 | Johnny Tremain | Esther Forbes |
| 1943 | Adam of the Road | Elizabeth Janet Gray |
| 1942 | The Matchlock Gun | Walter D. Edmonds |
| 1941 | Call it Courage * | Armstrong Sperry |
| 1940 | Daniel Boone | James Daugherty |
| 1939 | Thimble Summer | Elizabeth Enright |
| 1938 | The White Stag * | Kate Seredy |
| 1937 | Roller Skates | Ruth Sawyer |
| 1936 | Caddie Woodlawn | Carol Ryrie Brink |
| 1935 | Dobry | Monical Shannon |
| 1934 | Invincible Louisa * | Cornelia Meigs |
| 1933 | Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze | Elizabeth Foreman Lewis |
| 1932 | Waterless Mountain | Laura Adams Armer |
| 1931 | The Cat Who Went to Heaven | Elizabeth Coatsworth |
| 1930 | Hitty, Her First Hundred Years | Rachel Field |
| 1929 | The Trumpeter of Krakow | Eric P. Kelly |
| 1928 | Gay-Neck | Dhan Gopal Mukerji |
| 1927 | Smoky, the Cowhorse | Will James |
| 1926 | Shen of the Sea | Arthur Bowie Chrisman |
| 1925 | Tales from Silver Lands | Charles J. Finger |
| 1924 | The Dark Frigate | Charles Boardman Hawes |
| 1923 | The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle | Hugh Lofting |
| 1922 | The Story of Mankind | Hendrik Van Loon |
* Highly recommended. Meaning no disrespect for others.