Newbery Medal 2010s: A decade of winners

The 2010s proved to be a transformative decade for the Newbery Medal, America’s most prestigious award for children’s literature. During these ten years, the award—first established in 1922—continued its mission to honor the most distinguished contributions to American children’s literature, but the winners themselves reflected a noticeably broader landscape of voices, formats, and storytelling styles. This was the era when verse novels like Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover could win alongside contemporary realistic fiction, when picture books with visual storytelling sophistication like Last Stop on Market Street earned equal recognition, and when diverse protagonists and multilayered narratives became not exceptions but the expected norm. The decade’s Newbery Medal winners seemed to wrestle collectively with questions of identity, belonging, and what it means to see oneself in the stories we read.

Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me kicked off the decade with its intricate time-travel puzzle, while Katherine Applegate’s The One and Only Ivan demonstrated the enduring power of animal narratives told with emotional depth. By mid-decade, the award had embraced formal experimentation—Alexander’s basketball-themed verse novel felt like a watershed moment—and increasingly centered marginalized perspectives. Kate DiCamillo’s Flora & Ulysses, Kelly Barnhill’s dreamlike The Girl Who Drank the Moon, and Meg Medina’s Merci Suárez Changes Gears showcased a range of protagonist experiences and narrative approaches that would have seemed less likely to dominate the Newbery Medal conversation in previous generations.

Below, you’ll find the complete list of this remarkable decade of winners, each one a testament to the evolving tastes and values of the children’s literature community.