| Year | Author | Book | |
|---|
| 2008 | Laura Amy Schlitz | Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village | |
| 2007 | Susan Patron | The Higher Power of Lucky | |
| 2006 | Lynne Rae Perkins | Criss Cross | |
| 2005 | Cynthia Kadohata | Kira-Kira | |
| 2004 | Kate DiCamillo | The Tale of Despereaux | |
| 2003 | Edward Irving Wortis | Crispin: The Cross of Lead | |
| 2002 | Linda Sue Park | A Single Shard | |
| 2001 | Richard Peck | A Year Down Yonder | |
| 2000 | Christopher Paul Curtis | Bud, Not Buddy | |
| 1999 | Louis Sachar | Holes | |
| 1998 | Karen Hesse | Out of the Dust | |
| 1997 | E. L. Konigsburg | The View from Saturday | |
| 1996 | Karen Cushman | The Midwife's Apprentice | |
| 1995 | Sharon Creech | Walk Two Moons | |
| 1994 | Lois Lowry | The Giver | |
| 1993 | Cynthia Rylant | Missing May | |
| 1992 | Phyllis Reynolds Naylor | Shiloh | |
| 1991 | Jerry Spinelli | Maniac Magee | |
| 1990 | Lois Lowry | Number the Stars | |
| 1989 | Paul Fleischman | Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices | |
| 1988 | Russell Freedman | Lincoln: A Photobiography | |
| 1987 | Sid Fleischman | The Whipping Boy | |
| 1986 | Patricia MacLachlan | Sarah, Plain and Tall | |
| 1985 | Robin McKinley | The Hero and the Crown | |
| 1984 | Beverly Cleary | Dear Mr. Henshaw | |
| 1983 | Cynthia Voigt | Dicey's Song | |
| 1982 | Nancy Willard | A Visit to William Blake's Inn | |
| 1981 | Katherine Paterson | Jacob Have I Loved | |
| 1980 | Joan Blos | A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal | |
| 1979 | Ellen Raskin | The Westing Game | |
| 1978 | Katherine Paterson | Bridge to Terabithia | |
| 1977 | Mildred Taylor | Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry | |
| 1976 | Susan Cooper | The Grey King | |
| 1975 | Virginia Hamilton | M. C. Higgins, the Great | |
| 1974 | Paula Fox | The Slave Dancer | |
| 1973 | Jean Craighead George | Julie of the Wolves | |
| 1972 | Robert C. O'Brien | Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH | |
| 1971 | Betsy Byars | Summer of the Swans | |
| 1970 | William H. Armstrong | Sounder | |
| 1969 | Lloyd Alexander | The High King | |
| 1968 | E. L. Konigsburg | From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler | |
| 1967 | Irene Hunt | Up a Road Slowly | |
| 1966 | Elizabeth Borton de Treviño | I, Juan de Pareja | |
| 1965 | Maia Wojciechowska | Shadow of a Bull | |
| 1964 | Emily Cheney Neville | It's Like This, Cat | |
| 1963 | Madeleine L'Engle | A Wrinkle in Time | |
| 1962 | Elizabeth George Speare | The Bronze Bow | |
| 1961 | Scott O'Dell | Island of the Blue Dolphins | |
| 1960 | Joseph Krumgold | Onion John | |
| 1959 | Elizabeth George Speare | The Witch of Blackbird Pond | |
| 1958 | Harold Keith | Rifles for Watie | |
| 1957 | Virginia Sorenson | Miracles on Maple Hill | |
| 1956 | Jean Lee Latham | Carry On, Mr. Bowditch | |
| 1955 | Meindert DeJong | The Wheel on the School | |
| 1954 | Joseph Krumgold | ...And Now Miguel | |
| 1953 | Ann Nolan Clark | Secret of the Andes | |
| 1952 | Eleanor Estes | Ginger Pye | |
| 1951 | Elizabeth Yates | Amos Fortune, Free Man | |
| 1950 | Marguerite de Angeli | The Door in the Wall | |
| 1949 | Marguerite Henry | King of the Wind | |
| 1948 | William Pène du Bois | The Twenty-One Balloons | |
| 1947 | Carolyn Sherwin Bailey | Miss Hickory | |
| 1946 | Lois Lenski | Strawberry Girl | |
| 1945 | Robert Lawson | Rabbit Hill | |
| 1944 | Esther Forbes | Johnny Tremain | |
| 1943 | Elizabeth Gray Vining | Adam of the Road | |
| 1942 | Walter D. Edmonds | The Matchlock Gun | |
| 1941 | Armstrong Sperry | Call It Courage | |
| 1940 | James Daugherty | Daniel Boone | |
| 1939 | Elizabeth Enright | Thimble Summer | |
| 1938 | Kate Seredy | The White Stag | |
| 1937 | Ruth Sawyer | Roller Skates | |
| 1936 | Carol Ryrie Brink | Caddie Woodlawn | |
| 1935 | Monica Shannon | Dobry | |
| 1934 | Cornelia Meigs | Invincible Louisa | |
| 1933 | Elizabeth Foreman Lewis | Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze | |
| 1932 | Laura Adams Armer | Waterless Mountain | |
| 1931 | Elizabeth Coatsworth | The Cat Who Went to Heaven | |
| 1930 | Rachel Field | Hitty, Her First Hundred Years | |
| 1929 | Eric P. Kelly | The Trumpeter of Krakow | |
| 1928 | Dhan Gopal Mukerji | Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon | |
| 1927 | Will James | Smoky the Cow Horse | |
| 1926 | Arthur Bowie Chrisman | Shen of the Sea | |
| 1925 | Charles Finger | Tales from Silver Lands | |
| 1924 | Charles Hawes | The Dark Frigate | |
| 1923 | Hugh Lofting | The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle | |
| 1922 | Hendrik Willem van Loon | The Story of Mankind | |