2017
- (Winner) The Girl Who Drank the Moon, by Kelly Barnhill
- Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life, by Ashley Bryan
- The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog, by Adam Gidwitz
- Wolf Hollow, by Lauren Wolk
2016
- (Winner) Last Stop on Market Street, by Matt de la Peña
- The War that Saved My Life, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
- Roller Girl, by Victoria Jamieson
- Echo, by Pam Muñoz Ryan
2015
- (Winner) The Crossover, by Kwame Alexander
- El Deafo, by Cece Bell
- Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson
2014
- (Winner) Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures, by Kate DiCamillo
- Doll Bones, by Holly Black
- The Year of Billy Miller, by Kevin Henkes
- One Came Home, by Amy Timberlake
- Paperboy, by Vince Vawter
1956
- (Winner) Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, by Jean Lee Latham
- The Secret River, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
- The Golden Name Day, by Jennie Lindquist
- Men, Microscopes, and Living Things, by Katherine Shippen
1955
- (Winner) The Wheel on the School, by Meindert DeJong
- Courage of Sarah Noble, by Alice Dalgliesh
- Banner In The Sky, by James Ullman
1954
- (Winner) …And Now Miguel, by Joseph Krumgold
- All Alone, by Claire Huchet Bishop
- Shadrach, by Meindert Dejong
- Hurry Home, Candy, by Meindert Dejong
- Theodore Roosevelt, Fighting Patriot, by Clara Ingram Judson
- Magic Maize, by Mary & Conrad Buff
1953
- (Winner) Secret of the Andes, by Ann Nolan Clark
- Charlotte’s Web, by E. B. White
- Moccasin Trail, by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
- Red Sails to Capri, by Ann Weil
- The Bears on Hemlock Mountain, by Alice Dalgliesh
- Birthdays of Freedom, Vol. 1, by Genevieve Foster
1952
- (Winner) Ginger Pye, by Eleanor Estes
- Americans Before Columbus, by Elizabeth Baity
- Minn of the Mississippi, by Holling C. Holling
- The Defender, by Nicholas Kalashnikoff
- The Light at Tern Rock, by Julia Sauer
- The Apple and the Arrow, by Mary & Conrad Buff
1951
- (Winner) Amos Fortune, Free Man, by Elizabeth Yates
- Better Known as Johnny Appleseed, by Mabel Leigh Hunt
- Gandhi, Fighter Without a Sword, by Jeanette Eaton
- Abraham Lincoln, Friend of the People, by Clara Ingram Judson
- The Story of Appleby Capple, by Anne Parrish
1950
- (Winner) The Door in the Wall, by Marguerite de Angeli
- Tree of Freedom, by Rebecca Caudill
- The Blue Cat of Castle Town, by Catherine Coblentz
- Kildee House, by Rutherford Montgomery
- George Washington, by Genevieve Foster
- Song of The Pines: A Story of Norwegian Lumbering in Wisconsin, by Walter & Marion Havighurst
1949
- (Winner) King of the Wind, by Marguerite Henry
- Seabird, by Holling C. Holling
- Daughter of the Mountains, by Louise Rankin
- My Father’s Dragon, by Ruth S. Gannett
- Story of the Negro, by Arna Bontemps
1948
- (Winner) The Twenty-One Balloons, by William Pène du Bois
- Pancakes-Paris, by Claire Huchet Bishop
- Li Lun, Lad of Courage, by Carolyn Treffinger
- The Quaint and Curious Quest of Johnny Longfoot, by Catherine Besterman
- The Cow-Tail Switch, and Other West African Stories, by Harold Courlander
- Misty of Chincoteague, by Marguerite Henry
1947
- (Winner) Miss Hickory, by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
- Wonderful Year, by Nancy Barnes
- Big Tree, by Mary & Conrad Buff
- The Heavenly Tenants, by William Maxwell
- The Avion My Uncle Flew, by Cyrus Fisher, pseud. (Darwin L. Teilhet)
- The Hidden Treasure of Glaston, by Eleanor Jewett
1946
- (Winner) Strawberry Girl, by Lois Lenski
- Justin Morgan Had a Horse, by Marguerite Henry
- The Moved-Outers, by Florence Crannell Means
- Bhimsa, the Dancing Bear, by Christine Weston
- New Found World, by Katherine Shippen
1945
- (Winner) Rabbit Hill, by Robert Lawson
- The Hundred Dresses, by Eleanor Estes
- The Silver Pencil, by Alice Dalgliesh
- Abraham Lincoln’s World, by Genevieve Foster
- Lone Journey: The Life of Roger Williams, by Jeanetter Eaton
1944
- (Winner) Johnny Tremain, by Esther Forbes
- These Happy Golden Years, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Fog Magic, by Julia Sauer
- Rufus M., by Eleanor Estes
- Mountain Born, by Elizabeth Yates
1943
- (Winner) Adam of the Road, by Elizabeth Janet Gray
- The Middle Moffat, by Eleanor Estes
- Have You Seen Tom Thumb?, by Mabel Leigh Hunt
1942
- (Winner) The Matchlock Gun, by Walter Edmonds
- Little Town on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- George Washington’s World, by Genevieve Foster
- Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison, by Lois Lenski
- Down Ryton Water, by Eva Roe Gaggin
1941
- (Winner) Call It Courage, by Armstrong Sperry
- Blue Willow, by Doris Gates
- Young Mac of Fort Vancouver, by Mary Jane Carr
- The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Nansen, by Anna Gertrude Hall
1940
- (Winner) Daniel Boone, by James Daugherty
- The Singing Tree, by Kate Seredy
- Runner of the Mountain Tops: The Life of Louis Agassiz, by Mabel Robinson
- By the Shores of Silver Lake, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Boy with a Pack, by Stephen W. Meader
1939
- (Winner) Thimble Summer, by Elizabeth Enright
- Nino, by Valenti Angelo
- Mr. Popper’s Penguins, by Richard & Florence Atwater
- Hello the Boat!, by Phyllis Crawford
- Leader By Destiny: George Washington, Man and Patriot, by Jeanette Eaton
- Penn, by Elizabeth Janet Gray
1938
- (Winner) The White Stag, by Kate Seredy
- Pecos Bill, by James Cloyd Bowman
- Bright Island, by Mabel Robinson
- On the Banks of Plum Creek, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
1937
- (Winner) Roller Skates, by Ruth Sawyer
- Phebe Fairchild: Her Book, by Lois Lenski
- Whistler’s Van, by Idwal Jones
- The Golden Basket, by Ludwig Bemelmans
- Winterbound, by Margery Bianco
- The Codfish Musket, by Agnes Hewes
- Audubon, by Constance Rourke
1936
- (Winner) Caddie Woodlawn, by Carol Ryrie Brink
- Honk, the Moose, by Phil Stong
- The Good Master, by Kate Seredy
- Young Walter Scott, by Elizabeth Janet Gray
- All Sail Set: A Romance of the Flying Cloud, by Armstrong Sperry
1935
- (Winner) Dobry, by Monica Shannon
- Pageant of Chinese History, by Elizabeth Seeger
- Davy Crockett, by Constance Rourke
- Day On Skates: The Story of a Dutch Picnic, by Hilda Von Stockum
1934
- (Winner) Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women, by Cornelia Meigs
- The Forgotten Daughter, by Caroline Snedeker
- Swords of Steel, by Elsie Singmaster
- ABC Bunny, by Wanda Gág
- Winged Girl of Knossos, by Erik Berry, pseud. (Allena Best)
- New Land, by Sarah Schmidt
- Big Tree of Bunlahy: Stories of My Own Countryside, by Padraic Colum
- Glory of the Seas, by Agnes Hewes
- Apprentice of Florence, by Ann Kyle
1933
- (Winner) Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze, by Elizabeth Lewis
- Swift Rivers, by Cornelia Meigs
- The Railroad To Freedom: A Story of the Civil War, by Hildegarde Swift
- Children of the Soil: A Story of Scandinavia, by Nora Burglon
1932
- (Winner) Waterless Mountain, by Laura Adams Armer
- The Fairy Circus, by Dorothy P. Lathrop
- Calico Bush, by Rachel Field
- Boy of the South Seas, by Eunice Tietjens
- Out of the Flame, by Eloise Lownsbery
- Jane’s Island, by Marjorie Allee
- Truce of the Wolf and Other Tales of Old Italy, by Mary Gould Davis
1931
- (Winner) The Cat Who Went to Heaven, by Elizabeth Coatsworth
- Floating Island, by Anne Parrish
- The Dark Star of Itza: The Story of A Pagan Princess, by Alida Malkus
- Queer Person, by Ralph Hubbard
- Mountains are Free, by Julia Davis Adams
- Spice and the Devil’s Cave, by Agnes Hewes
- Meggy MacIntosh, by Elizabeth Janet Gray
- Garram the Hunter: A Boy of the Hill Tribes, by Herbert Best
- Ood-Le-Uk the Wanderer, by Alice Lide & Margaret Johansen
1930
- (Winner) Hitty, Her First Hundred Years, by Rachel Field
- A Daughter of the Seine: The Life of Madame Roland, by Jeanette Eaton
- Pran of Albania, by Elizabeth Miller
- Jumping-Off Place, by Marion Hurd McNeely
- The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales, by Ella Young
- Vaino, by Julia Davis Adams
- Little Blacknose, by Hildegarde Swift
1929
- (Winner) The Trumpeter of Krakow, by Eric P. Kelly
- Pigtail of Ah Lee Ben Loo, by John Bennett
- Millions of Cats, by Wanda Gág
- The Boy Who Was, by Grace Hallock
- Clearing Weather, by Cornelia Meigs
- Runaway Papoose, by Grace Moon
- Tod of the Fens, by Elinor Whitney
1928
- (Winner) Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon, by Dhan Gopal Mukerji
- Downright Dencey, by Caroline Snedeker
- The Wonder Smith and His Son, by Ella Young
1927
- (Winner) Smoky, the Cowhorse, by Will James
1926
- (Winner) Shen of the Sea, by Arthur Bowie Chrisman
- The Voyagers: Being Legends and Romances of Atlantic Discovery, by Padraic Colum
1925
- (Winner) Tales from Silver Lands, by Charles Finger
- Nicholas: A Manhattan Christmas Story, by Annie Carroll Moore
- The Dream Coach, by Anne Parrish
1924
- (Winner) The Dark Frigate, by Charles Hawes
1923
- (Winner) The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, by Hugh Lofting
1922
- (Winner) The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik Willem van Loon
- The Great Quest, by Charles Hawes
- Cedric the Forester, by Bernard Marshall
- The Old Tobacco Shop: A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of Adventure, by William Bowen
- The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles, by Padraic Colum
- The Windy Hill, by Cornelia Meigs