For more information about the National Book Award, click here.

2018     The poet X : a novel by Elizabeth Acevedo
2017     Far from the tree by Robin Benway
2016     March : Book Three by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin ; illustrated by Nate Powell
2015     Challenger deep by Neal Shusterman
2014     Brown girl dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
2013     The thing about luck by Cynthia Kadohata
2012     Goblin secrets by William Alexander
2011     Inside out & back again by Thanhha Lai
2010     Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
2009     Claudette Colvin : twice toward justice by Phillip Hoose
2008     What I saw and how I lied by Judy Blundell
2007     The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie
2006     The astonishing life of Octavian Nothing, traitor to the nation, volume 1 : The Pox party by M. T. Anderson
2005     The Penderwicks : a summer tale of four sisters, two rabbits, and a very interesting boy by Jeanne Birdsall.
2004     Godless by Pete Hautman
2003     The canning season by Polly Horvath
2002     The house of the scorpion by Nancy Farmer
2001     True believer by Virginia Euwer Wolff
2000     Homeless bird by Gloria Whelan
1999     When Zachary Beaver came to town by Kimberly Willis Holt
1998     Holes by Louis Sachar
1997     Dancing on the edge by Han Nolan
1996     Parrot in the oven : mi vida : a novel by Victor Martinez

This award was discontinued in 1984.  An award for Young People's Literature was introduced in 1996.

1983
Homesick, my own story by Jean Fritz (fiction, hardcover)
A place apart by Paula Fox (fiction, paperback)
Marked by fire by Joyce Carol Thomas (fiction, paperback)
Chimney sweeps : yesterday and today by James Cross Giblin (non-fiction)
Miss Rumphius story and pictures by Barbara Cooney (picture books, hardcover)
Doctor De Soto by William Steig (picture books, hardcover)
A house is a house for me by Mary Ann Hoberman ; illustrated by Betty Fraser (picture books, paperback)
1982
Westmark by Lloyd Alexander (fiction, hardcover)
Words by heart by Ouida Sebestyen (fiction, paperback)
A penguin year written and illustrated by Susan Bonners (non-fiction)
Outside over there by Maurice Sendak (picture books, hardcover)
Noah's ark by Jacob Revius ; translated from the Dutch by Peter Spier ; illustrated by Peter Spier (picture books, paperback)
1981
The night swimmers by Betsy Byars (fiction, hardcover)
Ramona and her mother by Beverly Cleary (fiction, paperback)
Oh, boy! Babies! by Alison Cragin Herzig and Jane Lawrence Mali (non-fiction, hardcover)
1980     A gathering of days : a New England girl's journal, 1830-32 : a novel by Joan Blos; A swiftly tilting planet by Madeleine L'Engle
1979     The great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
1978     The view from the oak : the private worlds of other creatures by Judith and Herbert Kohl
1977     The master puppeteer by Katherine Paterson
1976     Bert Breen's barn by Walter D. Edmonds
1975     M. C. Higgins, the great by Virginia Hamilton
1974     The court of the stone children by Eleanor Cameron
1973     The farthest shore by Ursula Le Guin
1972     The slightly irregular fire engine; or, The hithering thithering djinn by Donald Barthelme
1971     The marvelous misadventures of Sebastian : grand extravaganza, including a performance by the entire cast of the Gallimaufry-Theatricus by Lloyd Alexander
1970     A day of pleasure; stories of a boy growing up in Warsaw by Isaac Bashevis Singer
1969     Journey from Peppermint Street by Meindert DeJong