2011  Moon Over Manifest - Clare Vanderpool
2010  When You Reach Me - Rebecca Stead

2009  The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, illus. - Dave McKean
2008  Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village - Laura Amy Schlitz
2007  The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illus. - Matt Phelan
2006  Criss Cross - Lynne Rae Perkins
2005  Kira-Kira - Cynthia Kadohata
2004  The Tale of Despereaux - 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 - Christopher Paul Curtis

1999  Holes - Louis Sachar
1998  Out of the Dust - Karen Hesse
1997  The View from Saturday - E.L. Konigsburg
1996  The Midwife's Apprentice - Karen Cushman
1995  Walk Two Moons - Sharon Creech
1994  The Giver - Lois Lowry
1993  Missing May - Cynthia Rylant
1992  Shiloh - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
1991  Maniac Magee - Jerry Spinelli
1990  Number the Stars - Lois Lowry

1989  Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices - Paul Fleischman
1988  Lincoln: A Photobiography - Russell Freedman
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: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers - Nancy Willard
1981  Jacob Have I Loved - Katherine Paterson
1980  A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832 - 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 NIMH - Robert C. O'Brien
1971  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. Konigsburg
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 (Crowell)

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 - William Pène du 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 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 - Monica Shannon
1934  Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women - Cornelia Meigs
1933  Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze - Elizabeth 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, the Story of a Pigeon - Dhan Gopal Mukerji
1927  Smoky, the Cowhorse - Will James
1926  Shen of the Sea - Arthur Bowie Chrisman
1925  Tales from Silver Lands - Charles Finger
1924  The Dark Frigate - Charles Hawes
1923  The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle - Hugh Lofting
1922  The Story of Mankind - Hendrik Willem van Loon