Too hard to pick. I also stopped around the mid 70s. I read almost all before that. Johnny Tremain was the one that came to mind, but Mrs. Frisby, Basil E., The High King, The Grey King (part of the very spooky and fantastic The Dark is Rising series), It’s Like This, Cat… no way I could pick. Got chills over here remembering those old friends.
Aaargh! How could I forget Rabbit Hill?!?!?!
Of those that I’ve read, my favorite is definitely A Wrinkle in Time, which probably had a greater influence on me than any other book I’ve read. But I don’t know if that makes it the best overall, or just the best for me.
And I see a lot of folks praising The Giver. While it shows extreme mastery of the craft of writing (seldom have I ever seen such an excellent example of “show don’t tell”), there are just too many holes in the world-building for me to rate it that highly. The math just doesn’t work out.
I’ve read all of 4 of them, so A Wrinkle In Time gets the nod.
And another vote for A Wrinkle In Time. “Wild nights are my glory.”
So many good ones to choose from, but my favorites are probably Maniac Magee and Shiloh. Someone also mentioned The Witch of Blackbird Pond. I recall enjoying that one a lot too.
It is very good, but imho the series didnt hold up, unlike the The Dark is Rising sequence.
Not the lone hater of it, I just read it aloud to my children a couple of years back. I am convinced that nobody proofread or edited it in any way. It was okay for its time but would have sold 10 copies if written today. Not a good book.
I am going to put forward Holes as being the best- good character development, good appealing to young person angst, distrust of adults, good motivations, and also a fun read!
i think this is subjective because everyone has different favorite eras … but i loved the westing game and still think dear mr henshaw is one of the worst kids books ever …
oh and I just realized i loved johnny Tremaine and rabbit hill i think we still have an original copy around here … sad thing is the “reading rots the mind” chapter fit so much of my family …
I liked A Wrinkle in Time as a child. As an adult, I find it heavy-handed.
I remember loving Carry On, Mr. Bowditch as a child, but haven’t revisited it since. It’s either that or The Grey King.
I loved … Mixed-Up Files … but also this one, not yet mentioned:
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (Harper), 1973
I remember crying at the end (and I’ve never been that much of a crier).
Read as a child:
A Wrinkle In Time, followed by The High King. I’d love to see another attempt cinematic attempt at the Prydain books. I wonder if Disney still has the rights, or can someone else (please, please Laika oh please) take a shot.
Read as an adult when my kids had to pick a Newberry Winner for book reports (this was a requirement at least once per semester all the way from 4th-8th grade):
The Graveyard Book, followed by The Giver.
My youngest son loved The Grey King, which inspired him to read the rest of the Dark Is Rising series (out of order). We gave him the boxed set for Christmas that year, and he tracked down Susan Cooper’s mailing address and asked us to help him pack it up and mail it with prepaid return postage to be signed. She signed each volume individually with a personalized message and included a very nice personal note on her own stationery. I still haven’t gotten around to reading the sequence because my son won’t let me touch the books. “Get them from the library! Don’t mess up my copies!”
I haven’t picked up A Wrinkle In Time in decades. Some of the comments here, along with my older son’s lukewarm response (I got the feeling he didn’t like it at all, but went with “It’s OK” after I had talked it up so much), make me wonder if it’s dated.
[QUOTE=ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness;19972206
My youngest son loved The Grey King, which inspired him to read the rest of the Dark Is Rising series (out of order). We gave him the boxed set for Christmas that year, and he tracked down Susan Cooper’s mailing address and asked us to help him pack it up and mail it with prepaid return postage to be signed. She signed each volume individually with a personalized message and included a very nice personal note on her own stationery. I still haven’t gotten around to reading the sequence because my son won’t let me touch the books. “Get them from the library! Don’t mess up my copies!”.[/QUOTE]
Great series, and Ms Cooper is wonderful. Too bad the film was just “meh”.
Based on the series, maybe the High King but I think I like one of the previous books in the series better.
I haven’t been able to finish The Dark is Rising series. Over Sea, Under Stone was excellent, but The Dark is Rising seemed too “easy” to me: The main character is magical because he just is, and every single aspect of the quest is just handed to him on a silver (or wooden or other metal) platter just for existing. He never had to actually try for anything. Similarly for Greenwitch, which can be summarized as “Give us the MacGuffin” “No.” “Pretty please?” “Well, OK then.”.
I didn’t mind that too much. To properly enjoy fantasy, I skip over the parts that don’t make any sense.
Wow…can’t believe my eyes zipped right past FROM THE MIXED UP FILES. I devoured all of Konigsburg’s novels as a kid. MIXED UP wouldn’t replace THE GIVER for me, but it would be in my top five.
I bought THE WESTING GAME for my daughter when she was young, but didn’t read it myself. I was already a college boy when it was published.
Kind of shocking to me that neither THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH (1961) nor BLESS THE BEASTS AND CHILDREN (1970) won the award for their years.
Ah, well, awards are awards. Both Sunset Boulevard and All About Eve lost out on the 1950 Best Picture Oscar to Born Yesterday.
“The Westing Game” is the type of “clever” book I loved as a kid. I suspect now I’d prefer “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH”.
I absolutely, positively could not stand “I, Juan de Pareja”. It was s-o-o-o-o-o boring, but I was forced to read it in elementary school; I think we were each arbitrarily assigned a Newberry book to read and I got stuck with that one. Maybe I’d appreciate it more now that I’ve developed more tolerance to slow-moving books.