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littlerhymes asked which Newberies were hardest to find. As it happens, I kept a list of how I found all the Newberies, so I can answer this in some detail!
When I started this project, I was living in Indianapolis, and the Indianapolis Public Library had all the Newbery Honor books back to 1970. Since I looked this up in 2020, it’s possible they have some sort of cutoff where they keep at least one copy in the system for fifty years? Or maybe it was just a coincidence.
At any rate, the cutoff was sharp at 1970 itself, when there were three books the Indianapolis library didn't have. Through my mother, I had access to the Evergreen Library Consortium which connects libraries through Indiana. Through my father, I had access to the Purdue University libraries. Using these resources, I found two of the Honor books of 1970, except
The Many Ways of Seeing: An Introduction to the Pleasures of Art, which my mother bought me as a present, which is CHEATING.
Um. I mean, thank you for the kind present, Mom!
(But it’s still not in the proper treasure hunt spirit!)
These two libraries also filled the gaps in the Indianapolis collection of the 1960s Newberys.
In the 1950s, the treasure hunt got real. I got four books through interlibrary loan. One I read on a trip to the Indiana State Library, and another I read on in the Lilly Library Reading Room in Bloomington, which conveniently has a collection of first editions of many Newbery Honor books.
I also read one through openlibrary.org, and I will note that many of the books I found through other means are available on this website. I only used it a few times for two reasons: one, the scanned books tend to give me a headache, and it’s impossible to be fair to a book while you have a splitting headache. And two, this also cut into the whole treasure hunt aspect. Does openlibrary.org bring you a book on a little pillow like the Lilly Library? Absolutely they do not.
(I also almost certainly could have gotten all the books I found in various archives and reading rooms through interlibrary loan, but again, would they have been brought to me on a little pillow? No! Sometimes one must simply embrace the thrill of the chase.)
For the 1940s, I had one Indiana State Library book, three interlibrary loans, and three Lilly Library Reading Room books. (I also read two more books on openlibrary.org, and it was the poor scanning of Eva Roe Gaggin’s
Down Ryton Water that broke me.)
The 1930s were the hardest decade by far. I had twenty-three interlibrary loans, three Lilly Library books, two Indiana State Library books (I should note that the Indiana State Library doesn’t check out the older materials in its collection, so all these books I read in the library), four Lilly Library Reading Room books, and near the end of the project I discovered that the Purdue Archive had one of the books I needed, so I got to read that one in the Purdue Archive Reading Room.
The 1920s were actually easier, mostly because the Newbery Committee chose far fewer runners-up in the 1920s than the 1930s, but also because the 1920s books were beginning to come off copyright. (As of 2025, they’re all out of copyright.) So I could read many of them through gutenberg.org or Google Books, but since 1928 and 1929 were still under copyright at the time, there was still an interlibrary loan, a Lilly Reading Room book, and an Indiana State Library book.
And that is the tale of my Newbery treasure hunt! Now that I’ve finished the list, I feel a trifle bereft: what books can I have the archivists bring me on little pillows now? However, you’ll be pleased to hear that I’ve already started a small list of books that I look forward to reserving at the archives at my leisure.
