First presented in 1967, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for excellence in literature for children and young adults are among the most prestigious honors in the field. 

2007:
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party by M. T. Anderson
Dog and Bear: Two Friends, Three Stories by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
The Strongest Man in the World: Louis Cyr by Nicolas Debon

2006:
Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
If You Decide to Go to the Moon by Faith McNulty

2005:
The Schwa was Here by Neal Schusterman
The Race to Save the Lord God Bird by Phillip Hoose
Traction Man is Here! by Mini Grey

2004:
The Fire-Eaters by David Almond
An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy
The Man Who Walked between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein

2003:
The Jamie and Angus Stories by Anne Fine
Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey by Maira Kalman
Big Momma Makes the World by Phyllis Root

2002:
Lord of the Deep by Graham Salisbury
This Land was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie by Elizabeth Partridge
“Let’s Get a Pup!” Said Kate by Bob Graham

2001:
Carver: A Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson
The Longitude Prize by Joan Dash
Cold Feet by Cynthia DeFelice

2000:
The Folk Keeper  by Franny Billingsley
Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado by Marc Aronson
Henry Hikes to Fitchburg by D. B. Johnson

1999:
Holes by Louis Sachar
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance by Jennifer Armstrong
Red-Eyed Tree Frog by Joy Cowley

1998:
The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child  by Francisco Jiménez
Leon’s Story by Leon Walter Tillage
And If the Moon Could Talk by Kate Banks

1997:
The Friends by Kazumi Yumoto
A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder by Walter Wick
The Adventures of Sparrowboy by Brian Pinkney

1996:
Poppy by Avi
Orphan Train Rider: One Boy’s True Story by Andrea Warren
In the Rain with Baby Duck by Amy Hest

1995:
Some of the Kinder Planets by Tim Wynne-Jones
Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution by Natalie S. Bober
John Henry retold by Julius Lester

1994:
Scooter by Vera Williams
Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery by Russell Freedman
Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say

1993:
Ajeemah and His Son by James Berry
Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman?  by Patricia C. and Fredrick McKissack
The Fortune Tellers by Lloyd Alexander

1992:
Missing May by Cynthia Rylant
Talking with Artists compiled and edited by Pat Cummings
Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young

1991:
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
Appalachia: The Voices of Sleeping Birds by Cynthia Rylant
The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks by Katherine Paterson

1990:
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
The Great Little Madison by Jean Fritz
Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China translated and illustrated by Ed Young

1989:
The Village by the Sea by Paula Fox
The Way Things Work by David Macaulay
Shy Charles by Rosemary Wells

1988:
The Friendship by Mildred D. Taylor
Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave by Virginia Hamilton
The Boy of the Three-Year Nap by Dianne Snyder

1987:
Rabble Starkey by Lois Lowry
The Pilgrims of Plimoth by Marcia Sewall
Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe

1986:
In Summer Light by Zibby Oneal
Auks, Rocks, and the Odd Dinosaur: Inside Stories from the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History by Peggy Thomson
The Paper Crane by Molly Bang

1985:
The Moves Make the Man by Bruce Brooks
Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun by Rhoda Blumberg
Mama Don't Allow  by Thacher Hurd

1984:
A Little Fear by Patricia Wrightson
The Double Life of Pocahontas by Jean Fritz
Jonah and the Great Fish by Warwick Hutton

1983:
Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush by Virginia Hamilton
Behind Barbed Wire: The Imprisonment of Japanese Americans During World War II by Daniel S. Davis
A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams

1982:
Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park
Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944 by Aranka Siegal
A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard

1981:
The Leaving by Lynn Hall
The Weaver's Gift by Kathryn Lasky
Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak

1980:
Conrad's War by Andrew Davies
Building: The Fight Against Gravity by Mario Salvadori
The Garden of Abdul Gasazi by Chris Van Allsburg

1979:
Humbug Mountain by Sid Fleischman
The Road from Home: The Story of an Armenian Girl by David Kherdian
The Snowman by Raymond Briggs

1978:
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Mischling, Second Degree by Ilse Koehn
Anno's Journey by Mitsumasa Anno

1977:
Child of the Owl by Laurence Yep
Chance, Luck and Destiny by Peter Dickinson
Granfa' Grig Had a Pig and Other Rhymes Without Reason from Mother Goose by Wallace Tripp

1976:
Unleaving by Jill Paton Walsh
Voyaging to Cathay: Americans in the China Trade by Alfred Tamarin and Shirley Glubok
Thirteen by Remy Charlip and Jerry Joyner

1975:
Transport 7-41-R by T. Degens
Anno's Alphabet by Mitsumasa Anno

1974:
M.C. Higgins, The Great by Virginia Hamiltion
Jambo Means Hello by Muriel Feelings

1973:
The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper
King Stork by Howard Pyle

1972:
Tristan and Iseult by Rosemary Sutcliff
Mr. Gumpy's Outing by John Burningham

1971:
A Room Made of Windows by Eleanor Cameron
If I Built a Village . . . by Kazue Mizumura

1970:
The Intruder by John Rowe Townsend
Where the Lilies Bloom by Vera and Bill Cleaver

1969:
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin
The Adventures of Paddy  Pork by John S. Goodall

1968:
The Spring Rider by John Lawson
Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel

1967:
The Little Fishes by Erik Christian Haugaard
London Bridge is falling down by Peter Spier