In my recent post on the Newbery Award vs. Caldecott Medal, I pointed out that one of the main differences between the two awards is that the Caldecott Medal typically focuses on books that are more applicable for younger kids, while the Newbery Medal books work for kids that are a bit older. So what’s a good age to start kids reading Newbery Award-winning books? It’s hard to pinpoint a “right” age range, as all kids are different. When I was growing up, my mom pretty much skipped from the little kid books (like those that won the Caldecott: Polar Express and Owl Moon) to having me read big, grown-up books like Grapes of Wrath and Little Women. So some kids will likely be able to move to “adult” classics right away. That’s not to say that these Newbery Award books aren’t worth investing time to read, as they are a different type of classic. In fact, now that I’m going back and reading some of these Newbery winners, I have to say I feel a bit gypped that I only read a few of them back when I was a kid.
Newbery Award books are geared toward pre-teens, kids that have outgrown picture books but aren’t necessarily ready to delve into lengthier more difficult classics. The great thing about Newbery Award-winners is that they are their own brand of classic and they fill the void that many other inferior series’ have tried to fill (books like The Babysitter’s Club and Sweet Valley High from my generation come to mine, although I’m sure nowadays there are many others that kids are tempted to read, like Twilight).
Getting kids at the pre-teen age to want to read can be a challenge and many parents and educators are often happy just to get this age group to read anything, but instead of settling for sub-par literature and thus tainting the way that kids view quality of writing, the Newbery Award books are held to a higher standard.
There’s never an age that’s “too young” or “too old” to read good literature, which is why it’s hard to pinpoint an age to start reading the Newbery books. As an adult, I’ve still had a great time reading these books!
