In this thread I mentioned reading Walter Wangerin’s The Book of the Dun Cow. I was trying to figure out exactly when that was, because in retrospect I think I must have been really young. My recollection had been that my parents bought it for me after it won the National Book Award, but it turns out that it received that award for its paperback edition, two years or so after the original publication. I definitely had a hardcover, which definitely had a gold seal marking some kind of award-winner status on the jacket. So I’m thinking I got it after it won the New York Times Best Children’s Book of the Year award for 1978.
So now I’m wondering how notable that award is, as book awards go, and what other books have won it. Is there a list anywhere? Basic Wikipedia and Google searches have been fruitless.
A quick look online and in some of my children’s lit reference books confirm that while the New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book(s) of the Year is fairly well-known, it looks as though the “Best Children’s Book of the Year” (presumably for writing) has been given out haphazardly.
I know that I have a copy somewhere of The New York Times Parent’s Guide to the Best Books for Children, which would presumably contain a master list of the books that have been given the writing award.
I’m much more familiar with the laundry list of awards given by the American Library Association (Newbery, Caldecott, etc.; full list here, as well as the recommended lists published by CCBC (Cooperative Children’s Book Center) and Bank Street College.
I’ll have to dig and see if there’s a list anywhere–wouldn’t surprise me if it is indeed online, just tough to find.
No details to add about your question, but ah! you are making me miss having him as a professor. 
Memories.
I still have a hardback copy of that book at my parent’s house. Bit too heavy to take when I moved.