It should come as no surprise that my favorite Newbery winner is The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik Willem van Loon, winner of the very first Newbery Medal in 1922. I read the book when I was nine, and while it’s dated now, I return to it from time to time to savor the memory of the first reading experience that made me a lifelong history buff.
—Russell Freedman,
winner of the 1988 Newbery Medal for Lincoln: A Photobiography
