How the Newbery came to be
The Newbery Medal is awarded annually by the American Library Association for the most distinguished American children's book published the previous year. On June 22, 1921, Frederic G. Melcher proposed the award to the American Library Association meeting of the Children's Librarians' Section and suggested that it be named for the eighteenth-century English bookseller John Newbery. English publisher John Newbery (1713-1767) was the first person to create books specifically for children. His work reflected the changes in attitudes about children during the eighteenth century and aimed to present entertaining and educational materials designed for a child's reading level and interests.
The idea was enthusiastically accepted by the children's librarians, and Melcher's official proposal was approved by the ALA Executive Board in 1922. In Melcher's formal agreement with the board, the purpose of the Newbery Medal was stated as follows: "To encourage original creative work in the field of books for children. To emphasize to the public that contributions to the literature for children deserve similar recognition to poetry, plays, or novels. To give those librarians, who make it their life work to serve children's reading interests, an opportunity to encourage good writing in this field."
The Newbery Award thus became the first children's book award in the world. Its terms, as well as its long history, continue to make it the best known and most discussed children's book award in this country.
From the beginning of the awarding of the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, committees could, and usually did, cite other books as worthy of attention. Such books were referred to as Newbery or Caldecott "runners-up." In 1971 the term "runners-up" was changed to "honor books." The new terminology was made retroactive so that all former runners-up are now referred to as Newbery or Caldecott Honor Books.
Newbery Pocket Reader
Mr. Newbery's Little Pretty Pocket-Book
John Newbery was the first printer to see a market for children's books that both instructed and amused children, so he invented the genre. His first book of this kind, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book: Intended for the Instruction and Amusement of Little Master Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly was published in 1744, and is considered a landmark in children's literature. Interestingly, no copy of the first edition has been found.
A Little Pretty Pocket-Book contains several pages of games and amusements. At the top of each of these pages is a letter of the alphabet, below which is an illustration of the activity, a verse describing it, and a small verse with a moral lesson.For example, the book contains the first known mention of "Base-Ball."
The Ball once struck off,
Away flies the Boy
To the next destin'd Post,
And then Home with Joy.
The description of the game is followed by the verse:
Thus Britons for Lucre
Fly over the Main;
But, with Pleasure transported,
Return back again.
This isn't exactly the modern American game (note the posts instead of bases), but it looks pretty close. The illustrations and verses in Little Pretty Pocket-Book help historians research games of the past.
Newbery knew how to market to children and their parents. A Little Pretty Pocket-Book was sold with a ball (for boys) and a pincushion (for girls). Contained in the book was a letter from Jack the Giant-Killer describing the proper use of these toys. Newbery's books, bound with covers of Dutch floral paper and gilt edges, were designed to delight the eye. His books appealed to parents who embraced the popular Lockean ideal of education by amusement, and they set a standard for quality of writing and presentation.
A Little Pretty Pocket-Book was the first of many educational children's books published by Newbery. He appears to have written several books himself, but well-known authors were also willing to write for him. Sarah Fielding, for example, wrote, The Governess or Little Female Academy, and Oliver Goldsmith almost certainly wrote Little Goody Two-Shoes. Newbery's The Newtonian System of Philosophy, also known as The Philosophy of Tops and Balls, was an introduction to what we would call science today, presenting astronomy, physics, geography, and natural philosophy in an appealing way. We can credit Newbery with the first English version of Charles Perrault's Tales from Mother Goose. By the time of his death in 1767, Newberry had published a long list of children's titles. The Latin motto on the frontispiece of A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, "Delectando monemus," had become his life's mission-instruction with delight.