MadLuck Books Blog

The Horn Book Award Winners 1986 - present

The Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards were first presented in 1967, to honor the best in children's and young adult literature. Winners are selected in the following categories: Picture Book, Fiction and Poetry, Nonfiction and occasionally, a book will receive a special citation for its high quality and overall creative excellence. The winning titles must be published in the United States but they may be written or illustrated by citizens of any country. The awards are chosen by an independent panel of three judges who are annually appointed by the Editor of the Horn Book.

The winners (images are from the picture book winner for each year):

2006
Picture Book:

Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert (Harcourt)
Fiction and Poetry:
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline (Candlewick)
Nonfiction:
If You Decide to Go to the Moon by Faith McNulty, illustrated by Steven Kellogg (Scholastic)

2005
Picture Book:

Traction Man Is Here! by Mini Grey (Knopf)
Fiction and Poetry:
The Schwa Was Here by Neal Schusterman (Dutton)
Nonfiction:
The Race to Save the Lord God Bird by Phillip Hoose (Kroupa/Farrar)

2004
Picture Book:

The Man Who Walked between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein (Roaring Brook)
Fiction and Poetry:
The Fire-Eaters by David Almond (Delacorte)
Nonfiction:
An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy (Clarion)

2003
Picture Book:

Big Momma Makes the World written by Phyllis Root, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury (Candlewick)
Fiction and Poetry:
The Jamie and Angus Stories written by Anne Fine, illustrated by Penny Dale (Candlewick)
Nonfiction:
Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey by Maira Kalman (Putnam)

2002
Picture Book:

“Let’s Get a Pup!” Said Kate by Bob Graham (Candlewick)
Fiction and Poetry:
Lord of the Deep by Graham Salisbury (Delacorte)
Nonfiction:
This Land was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie by Elizabeth Partridge (Viking)

2001
Picture Book:

Cold Feet written by Cynthia DeFelice, illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker (DK Ink)
Fiction and Poetry:
Carver: A Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson (Front Street)
Nonfiction:
The Longitude Prize written by Joan Dash, illustrated by Dusan Petricic (Foster/Farrar)

2000
Picture Book:

Henry Hikes to Fitchburg by D. B. Johnson (Houghton)
Fiction:
The Folk Keeper by Franny Billingsley (Atheneum)
Nonfiction:
Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado by Marc Aronson (Clarion)

1999
Picture Book:

Red-Eyed Tree Frog written by Joy Cowley, illustrated with photographs by Nic Bishop (Scholastic)
Fiction:
Holes by Louis Sachar (Foster/Farrar)
Nonfiction:
The Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest by Steve Jenkins (Houghton)
Special Citation:
Tibet: Through the Red Box by Peter Sis (Foster/Farrar)

1998
Picture Book:

And If the Moon Could Talk written by Kate Banks, illustrated by Georg Hallensleben (Foster/Farrar)
Fiction:
The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child by Francisco Jiménez (University of New Mexico Press)
Nonfiction:
Leon’s Story written by Leon Walter Tillage, illustrated with collage art by Susan L. Roth (Farrar)

1997
Picture Book:

The Adventures of Sparrowboy by Brian Pinkney (Simon)
Fiction:
The Friends written by Kazumi Yumoto, translated by Cathy Hirano (Farrar)
Nonfiction:
A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder written and illustrated with photographs by Walter Wick (Scholastic)

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1996
Picture Book:

In the Rain with Baby Duck written by Amy Hest, illustrated by Jill Barton (Candlewick)
Fiction:
Poppy written by Avi, illustrated by Brian Floca (Jackson/Orchard)
Nonfiction:
Orphan Train Rider: One Boy’s True Story by Andrea Warren (Houghton)

1995
Picture Book:

John Henry retold by Julius Lester, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney (Dial)
Fiction:
Some of the Kinder Planets by Tim Wynne-Jones (Kroupa/Orchard)
Nonfiction:
Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution by Natalie S. Bober (Atheneum)

1994
Picture Book:

Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say (Houghton)
Fiction:
Scooter by Vera Williams (Greenwillow)
Nonfiction:
Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery by Russell Freedman (Clarion)

1993
Picture Book:

The Fortune Tellers written by Lloyd Alexander, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman (Dutton)
Fiction:
Ajeemah and His Son by James Berry (Harper)
Nonfiction:
Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman? by Patricia C. and Fredrick McKissack (Scholastic)

1992
Picture Book:

Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young (Philomel)
Fiction:
Missing May by Cynthia Rylant (Jackson/Orchard)
Nonfiction:
Talking with Artists compiled and edited by Pat Cummings (Bradbury)

1991
Picture Book:

The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks written by Katherine Paterson, illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon (Lodestar)
Fiction:
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi (Orchard)
Nonfiction:
Appalachia: The Voices of Sleeping Birds written by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Barry Moser (Harcourt)

1990
Picture Book:

Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China translated and illustrated by Ed Young (Philomel)
Fiction:
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (Little, Brown)
Nonfiction:
The Great Little Madison by Jean Fritz (Putnam)
Special Citation:
Valentine and Orson by Nancy Ekholm Burkert (Farrar)

1989
Picture Book:
Shy Charles by Rosemary Wells (Dial)

Fiction:
The Village by the Sea by Paula Fox (Orchard)
Nonfiction:
The Way Things Work by David Macaulay (Houghton)

1988
Picture Book:

The Boy of the Three-Year Nap written by Dianne Snyder, illustrated by Allen Say (Houghton)
Fiction:
The Friendship written by Mildred D. Taylor, illustrated by Max Ginsburg (Dial)
Nonfiction:
Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave by Virginia Hamilton (Knopf)

1987
Picture Book:

Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe (Lothrop)
Fiction:
Rabble Starkey by Lois Lowry (Houghton)
Nonfiction:
The Pilgrims of Plimoth by Marcia Sewall (Atheneum)

1986
Picture Book: