How many Newbery Medals has Lois Lowry won?
Answer
Two
How many Newbery Medals has Lois Lowry won? Lois Lowry has won two Newbery Medals.
Lowry’s first Newbery Medal recognized Number the Stars in 1990. Set in German-occupied Denmark during World War II, the novel follows Annemarie Johansen, a young girl whose family helps protect her Jewish friend Ellen Rosen from Nazi persecution. The story is inspired by the rescue of many Danish Jews in 1943.
Lowry won her second Newbery Medal in 1994 for The Giver, a dystopian novel about Jonas, a boy selected to inherit the community’s memories. As Jonas learns about pain, love, war, and freedom, he begins questioning a society that has eliminated most individual choice in the name of safety and order.
These two awards span very different kinds of fiction: Number the Stars is historical fiction grounded in the Holocaust era, while The Giver is speculative fiction about a controlled future society. Lowry’s Newbery total is sometimes confused with her nominations, other honors, or the number of books in The Giver Quartet. The Newbery Medals were awarded for two specific books, not for the entire series or her lifetime career.