Forgive me – after last week’s number crunching (So You Want to Win the Newbery Part I & Part II), I can’t seem to stop myself. Seriously, keep me off this page.

But the questions keep coming. Such as:

What percentage of Newbery Medal/Honor winners never won again?

What percentage did?

In figuring this out, I decided to only include winners up to the year 2000. That way newer authors (who have more time to win again) would not be thrown in with earlier winners. It isn’t perfect, but it’s a way to go.

Before looking at the numbers, I predicted that the percentage of repeat winners would be fairly low – my shot in the dark guess was around 10%. What is the actual percentage?

The numbers turned out pretty tidy, actually. Of the 228 individuals (and I’m counting the occasional husband/wife teams as one) who won a Newbery medal or honor through 2000, 76 repeated while 152 did not. Another way to look at it: 1 in 3 of  the individuals who won Newbery Medals or Honors through 2000 won more than once. I’d say those odds aren’t that bad.