The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The award has been given since 1922. It was the first children's literary award in the world. It is named for John Newbery, an 18th century English publisher of juvenile books. The Newbery Medal was designed by Rene Paul Chambellan and created by Frederic G. Melcher in 1921. It depicts on the obverse an author giving his work (a book) to a boy and a girl to read. The Newbery and the Caldecott Medal are considered the two most prestigious awards for children's literature in the United States. When the winner is announced each January, bookstores sell out, libraries order copies and teachers add the book to their lesson plans. Many bookstores and libraries have Newbery sections; popular television shows interview the winners; textbooks includes lists of Newbery winners, and many master's and doctoral theses are written about them.

Katrina Elizabeth "Kate" DiCamillo (born March 25, 1964) is an American author of children's fiction. Her 2003 novel The Tale of Despereaux won the annual Newbery Medal as the "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children", three years after Because of Winn-Dixie was a runner up (Newbery Honor Book). DiCamillo is also known for the Mercy Watson series of picture books, illustrated by Chris Van Dusen.

Born in Philadelphia, DiCamillo suffered from chronic pneumonia. At age five, she moved to Clermont, Florida for her health (warmer climate) with her mother and her older brother Curt DiCamillo, who would become a noted architectural historian. Her mother was a teacher. Her father remained in Pennsylvania to sell his orthodontic practice and never rejoined the family in Florida.

DiCamillo earned her college degree in English at the University of Florida in 1987 and worked in Florida after graduation. At age 30 she moved to Minneapolis and began working at a book warehouse. That job inspired her to write for children and allowed her to meet a sales representative for Candlewick Press, resulting in submission of a draft that would become Because of Winn-Dixie.

John Byran Gantos, Jr., better known as Jack Gantos (born July 2, 1951) is an American author of children's books renowned for his fictional character Joey Pigza, a boy with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Gantos has won several literary awards, including the Newbery Honor, the Printz Honor, and the Sibert Honor from the American Library Association, and he has been a finalist for the National Book Award. His latest book, Dead End in Norvelt (2011) won the 2012 Newbery Medal.

Gantos was born in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh to construction superintendent John Gantos and banker Elizabeth (Weaver) Gantos. The seeds for Gantos's writing career were planted in sixth grade, about age twelve, when he read his sister's diary and decided he could write better than she could. Raised in South Florida and the Caribbean, he began collecting anecdotes in grade school and later gathered them into stories.^{[citation needed]}

Gantos was born in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania and his family moved around the United States until Gantos was a junior in high school, when his family moved from their home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to San Juan, Puerto Rico. There, he couldn't attend school because he didn't know Spanish, so his family decided to put him to work. He worked with an electrical contractor in the construction project his father had in a hotel. He had his own room in the hotel and stayed there, with good pay, for six months until finally he decided it wasn't for him. He wanted to go to school to become a writer, and he thought the best way to do so was moving back to Florida. He moved there and lived with family friends.

Karen Hesse (born on August 29, 1952 Baltimore, Maryland) is an American author of children's literature and literature for young adults, often with historical settings.

She studied theatre at Towson State College, and married Randy Hesse in 1971 before completing her studies. She finished her undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland in English, Psychology, and Anthropology, during which she began writing poetry. After graduating, she moved with her husband to Brattleboro, Vermont, had two children, Rachel and Kate, took jobs in publishing, and started writing children's books. Her first novel was a rejected story about meeting Bigfoot, but her next proposal became the novel Wish on a Unicorn.

Out of the Dust is a story of a girl living through the dust bowl of the depression. The mother of the central character dies after a bucket of kerosene is left next to the stove. After the mother dies, Billie Jo and her father try and continue on with their lives. Billy Jo isn't comfortable with her father, but does as what she's told. "I don't know who he is anymore, he looks like my father, smells like my father, but he's like a stranger."

Patricia MacLachlan (born March 3, 1938 in Cheyenne, Wyoming) is a bestselling U.S. children's author, best known for winning the 1986 Newbery Medal for her book Sarah, Plain and Tall. The book was later turned into a TV movie starring Glenn Close and Christopher Walken.

MacLachlan was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming. She lived in Wyoming and Minnesota before moving East. She lost both parents at early ages. After graduating from University of Connecticut, she became an English teacher. She and her husband Robert MacLachlan have three children. During this time, she wrote a series of journal articles on adoption and foster mothers that had a major impact on her life. She says, "It was clear to me that much of the focus of my writing was sharpened by my involvement and concern for families and children. This interest, coupled with my commitment to children's literature, provided the basis for my decision to write for children--something I had always wanted to do."

She now lives in Williamsburg, Massachusetts with her husband.