Library Wish List

The DC Public Library Foundation and the DC Public Library are working together to develop a list of items needed by the library but not available for purchase with public funds.

Visit us again as items are posted and changed.

Be a Champion of Children's Reading!

There can never be too many great children's books. The Caldecott, Newbery, Pura Belpre, and Coretta Scott King Awards signify excellence in children’s literature. The library seeks to place multiple full collections of these books in each DC Library branch. Adding these collections will ensure that more children will have access to the best in children’s literature – with key books always present.

Collections range in price from $150 to $2,200 - from 14 to 241 volumes. Each purchased collection will display your name (or group's name) in a bookplate in each volume. Collections may also be given in honor of or in memory of someone dear to you - that person will also be recognized in the bookplate.

Purchase the last 25 years of Caldecott or Newbery Award-winning books for $295 - a great gift for your club or group to give to our City's children!

Children's Literature Collections

Best Children's Books Collections:

Last 25 years of Caldecott and Newbery Award winners, plus the entire set of Coretta Scott King and Pura Belpre Award winners

$1,200 (134 volumes) (for title listings see below)

Please enter a name if you are donating in someone's honor.

Entire collection of all Caldecott, Newbery, Coretta Scott King and Pura Belpre Award winners

$2,200 (241 volumes) (for title listings see below)

Please enter a name if you are donating in someone's honor.

Newbery Medal Award Winners:

Established in 1922, the Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

Entire set of 86 Newbery titles:

$875 (for a complete list of titles click here)

Please enter a name if you are donating in someone's honor.

Last 25 years of Newbery titles:
$ 295 (for a complete list of titles click here)

Please enter a name if you are donating in someone's honor.

Caldecott Medal Award Winners:

The Caldecott Medal, established in 1938, was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

Entire set of 70 Caldecott titles:
$ 725 (for a complete list of titles click here)

Please enter a name if you are donating in someone's honor.

Last 25 years of Caldecott titles:
$ 295 (for a complete list of titles click here)

Please enter a name if you are donating in someone's honor.

Coretta Scott King Award Winners:

Given to African American authors and illustrators for outstanding inspirational and educational contributions, the Coretta Scott King Book Award titles promote understanding and appreciation of the culture of all peoples and their contribution to the realization of the American dream.

The award is designed to commemorate the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to honor Mrs. Coretta Scott King for her courage and determination to continue the work for peace and world brotherhood.

Entire set of 71 titles.
$525 (for a complete list of titles click here)

Please enter a name if you are donating in someone's honor.

Pura Belpre Award Winners:

The Pura BelprÈ Award, established in 1996, is presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth. The award is named after Pura BelprÈ, the first Latina librarian at the New York Public Library. As a children's librarian, storyteller, and author, she enriched the lives of Puerto Rican children in the U.S.A. through her pioneering work of preserving and disseminating Puerto Rican folklore. It has been given every other year since 1996. Beginning with the 2009 award, it will be given annually.

Entire set of 14 titles
$ 150 (for a complete list of titles click here)

Please enter a name if you are donating in someone's honor.