"On a quest to read all of the existing Newbery award-winning books (est. 1921), a reading specialist examines the history of the books and the award itself. Considered the “most distinguished contribution to children’s literature,” the John Newbery gold medal, awarded by the American Library Association, is a high-water mark for upper elementary-aged children across the United States. The author’s two decades of teaching experience provide the analytical perspective and memoir-style investigation. Interviews with a book buyer for the Scholastic publisher, children’s librarians, former Newbery committee members, and a visit to the famed Kerlan Collection of Children’s Literature, frame the author’s adventure as he reads all the winners."--Provided by the author.

The problems under study were the following: 1. To determine the distribution of social and ethnic groups among the characters in books that have been awarded the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, and to analyze the treatment of certain groups. 2. To compare the ethnic distribution of characters in fifteen early Newbery Award books with the ethnic distribution of characters in fifteen recent Newbery Award books. 3. To interpret the findings of this study in the light of the objectives of the elementary school library.

紐伯瑞獎為創設於1922年的美國兒童文學獎，每年頒發給最傑出的美國兒童圖書的文字作者。創設至今，培育出無數傑出作家及優秀作品。不唯為全美兒童文學獎項的權威，也是全世界相關領域的師法對象。本研究採取書目計量法，探索1922年到2015年美國紐伯瑞獎作者背景、作品體裁與題材分佈，並透過台灣NBINet及中國CALIS蒐集中譯本書目，以瞭解作品中譯本出版狀況。研究結果歸納如下，一、作者背景：(1)作者有279名，美國與紐約州出生者最多，女性是男性的2倍，平均壽命78.3歲；(2)集中在30到59歲首度獲獎；(3) 1次得獎者最多，Meindert DeJong及Laura Ingalls Wilder創下最高得獎次數5次。二、作品體裁與題材：(1)體裁最多的是小說、傳記、短篇；(2)題材最多的是歷史、現實、冒險。三、作品中譯本：(1)54%的作品有中譯本，最早的中譯本是1925年上海商務印書館《人類的故事》，由沈性仁譯自《The Story of Mankind》；(2)最多中譯出版社及譯者翻譯出版的是《The Story of Mankind》，中譯書名種類最多的是《The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle》；(3)作品的中譯出版社、中譯譯者、中譯書名三種數量高度相關；(4)中譯本與英文本平均出版時間間隔，繁體是17.95年、簡體是27.83年；(5)繁體中譯出版社有72家，主要出版社是智茂、東方。簡體中譯出版社有108家，主要出版社是新蕾、中國少年兒童、河北教育；(6)譯者有438組，主要譯者是趙永芬、鄒嘉容、趙映雪；(7)中譯出版社最青睞小說體裁，不青睞知識文藝及傳說體裁；(8)中譯出版社最青睞動物及現實題材，較不青睞神祇題材。 / The Newbery Award was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. Based on bibliometrics, this study explores the genres, subjects and author’s backgrounds of Newbery winners and honor books from 1922 to 2015. The study also collects bibliographic records retrieved mainly from NBINet and CALIS databases for the purpose of investigating overall publishing status of their Chinese translations. The results are summarized as follows. First,with regards to the authors’ backgrounds, it is observed that: (1)Among the 279 authors, those born in USA comprise the largest number. New York is the most common birthplace for these USA born authors. Moreover, female authors account for twice the number of male authors. Furthermore, the average life expectancy for the authors is 78.3 years; (2)The majority of these authors received the award between 30 and 59 years of age; (3)Most of the authors were awarded only once. Meindert DeJong and Laura Ingalls Wilder, having been awarded 5 times, hold the record for the most Newberys won. Second, with regards to the distribution of the genres and themes of these works, it is observed that: (1)In terms of genre, the majority of the works fall under fiction and nonfiction novels, biography and short story; (2)The subject of these works mostly center around history, realism and adventure. Third, regarding the publishing status of these works’ Chinese translations, it is observed that: (1)Chinese translations are available for 54 percent of the works. The first Chinese translation was “Ren Lei De Gu Shi” published by Shanghai Commercial Press in 1925, which was translated from "The Story of Mankind" by Shen Xing-Ren; (2)The works with the largest number of Chinese publishing houses, Chinese translators and Chinese titles are "The Story of Mankind", “The Story of Mankind" and "The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle" respectively; (3)The numbers of Chinese publishing houses, translators and Chinese titles of a book are highly correlated; (4)In terms of the average time interval between the publication of English original works and Chinese translations, it took an average of 17.95 years for a Traditional Chinese translation to be published, while a Simplified Chinese translation usually took 27.83 years; (5)The number of Traditional Chinese publishers is 72, with the major publishers being Wisdom World Publishing and Eastern Publishing Co.. The number of Simplified Chinese publishers is 108; major publishers include New Buds Publishing House, China Children Publishing House and Hebei Education Press; (6)There are 437 group of translators, among which ZhaoYong-Fen, Zou Jia-Rong and Zhao Ying-Xue are the main translators; (7)From the standpoint of genre, Chinese publishing houses prefer to publish translations for fiction and nonfiction novels, while nonfiction depiction of facts and works based on folk legends are less favored; from the perspective of subjects, Chinese publishing houses favor realism and works with animal-related, whereas works based on mythologies receive least attention from publishers.