Annal:1985 Newbery Medal
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Newbery Medal in the year 1985. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
- 1985 Newbery winner
- 1985 Mythopoeic-Adult finalist
- Score: 16.35
Robin McKinley’s mesmerizing history of Damar is the stuff that legends are made of. The Hero and the Crown is a dazzling prequel to The Blue Sword.
Aerin is the only child of the king of Damar, and should be his rightful heir. But she is also the daughter of a witchwoman of the North, who died when she was born, and the Damarians cannot trust her.
But Aerin’s destiny is greater than her father’s people know, for it leads her to battle with Maur, the Black Dragon, and into the wilder Damarian Hills, where she meets the wizard Luthe. It is he who at last tells her the truth about her mother, and he also gives over to her hand the Blue Sword, Gonturan. But such gifts as these bear a great price, a price Aerin only begins to realize when she faces the evil mage, Agsded, who has seized the Hero’s Crown, greatest treasure and secret strength of Damar.
- 1985 Newbery honor
- Score: 6.35
“Timid Alex strives to be like his rugged cowboy stepfather, and the two find a common bond when Alex ‘rescues’ Jake from a wolf spider. Jukes’ quiet observations are unfaltering in their perceptiveness. Radiant full-page pastel illustrations serve as a striking counterpoint. This is an uplifting celebration of a new family’s understanding, acceptance and love that resonates with truth and humor.” —(starred) School Library Journal.
- 1985 Horn Book-fiction winner
- 1985 Newbery honor
- Score: 16.35
First time I saw Bix was at a baseball game. He was a shortstop, supreme. I didn’t want to start liking this flashy cracker with a momma in a high-style black dress. But Bix got me, baby. Next thing I knew, there I was, Jerome Foxworthy, doing hoops privately in the woods and getting my moves down, when Bix showed up. I taught him all I knew—even though he wanted to play everything straight, not fake it. Because he had one game coming up where he’d need all the moves to put his life together again…
—The Jayfox
- 1985 Newbery honor
- Score: 6.35
Ned fired the forbidden rifle just once, at a flickering shadow in the autumn moonlight. But someone—a face, fleetingly seen staring at him from an attic window—was watching.
And when a one-eyed cat turns up at an elderly neighbor’s woodshed, Ned is caught in a web of guilt, fear, and shame that he cannot escape—until another moonlit night, come spring, brings redemption and surprising revelations.
