| Year | Title | Author |
| 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 |
| 1991 | Manic 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 George |
| 1972 | Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH | Robert C. O'Brien |
| 1971 | Summer of the Swan | 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 | 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 | Elizbeth 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 of Maple Hill | Virginia Sorenson | 1956 | Carry On, Mr. Bowditch | Jean Lee Lathan | 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 Pene 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 | Eliabeth 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 Lousia: 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 Trumpter 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 | 1925 | Tales From Silver Lands | Charles Finger | 1924 | The Dark Frigate | Charles Hawes | 1923 | The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle | Hugh Lofting | 1922 | The Story of Mankind | Hendrik Willem van Loon |