Several technological breakthroughs were made in the 1940s, including two-way AM police radios and the discovery of microwave transmission. Many media stepping stones were reached, as well. The first television commercial was broadcast in New York in 1941 and touch-tone dialing was tried in Baltimore. Radio allows Americans to hear many somber events, including the broadcast of the Pearl Harbor attack and Franklin Roosevelt’s funeral. Jukeboxes went into mass production in 1946 and the presidential State of the Union address is televised for the first time in 1947. As for literature, Pocket Books began the first mass distribution system for books. Lucky us, huh?
1941 Medal Winner: “Call It Courage” by Armstrong Sperry
Honor Books
- “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
1942 Medal Winner: “The Matchlock Gun” by Walter Edmonds
Honor Books
- “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
1943 Medal Winner: “Adam of the Road” by Elizabeth Janet Gray
Honor Books
- “The Middle Moffat” by Eleanor Estes
- “Have You Seen Tom Thumb?” by Mabel Leigh Hunt
1944 Medal Winner: “Johnny Tremain” by Esther Forbes
Honor Books
- “These Happy Golden Years” by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- “Fog Magic” by Julia Sauer
- “Rufus M.” by Eleanor Estes
- “Mountain Born” by Elizabeth Yates
1945 Medal Winner: “Rabbit Hill” by Robert Lawson
Honor Books
- 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
1946 Medal Winner: “Strawberry Girl” by Lois Lenski
Honor Books
- “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
1947 Medal Winner: “Miss Hickory” by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
Honor Books
- “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
1948 Medal Winner: “The Twenty-One Balloons” by William Pène du Bois
Honor Books
- “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
1949 Medal Winner: “King of the Wind” by Marguerite Henry
Honor Books
- “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
1950 Medal Winner: “The Door in the Wall” by Marguerite de Angeli
Honor Books
- “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
Please see also:
Newbery Medal Winners: 1922-1930
Newbery Medal Winners: 1931-1940