According to the Virginia Library Association Web site, "The Jefferson Cup honors a distinguished biography, historical fiction or American history book for young people. Presented since 1983, the Jefferson Cup Committee’s goal is to promote reading about America's past; to encourage the quality writing of United States history, biography and historical fiction for young people and to recognize authors in these disciplines."

2008 Birmingham, 1963 by Carole Boston Weatherford: J811 W 2007
Describes the feelings of a fictional character who witnessed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombings in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963.

2007 Blood on the River: James Town 1607 by Elisa Carbone. School Library Journal also selected this title as Best Book of the Year for 2006.

2006 Sweetgrass Basket by Marlene Carvell. Upon the death of their mother, Mattie and Sarah, two Mohawk sisters, are sent to the Carlisle Industrial School for Indians. Set at the turn of the 20th century, what follows is the poignant, haunting story of the sisters’ experience. Founded by Richard Henry Pratt in 1879, the purpose of the Carlisle School, as well as the other Indian schools, was to "civilize" the Indian by stripping the children of their language, culture, and religion.

2005 A House of Tailors by Patricia Reilly Giff. The time is 1879 and a war is raging between Germany and France. In a small German town the local soldiers patrol the streets and even use the bell tower in the cathedral to spy on the French across the river.

2004 Grape Thief by Kristine Franklin. Slava Petrovich is a 12-year-old boy whose gift for cursing in various languages has earned him the nickname “Cuss.” The year is 1925, and Cuss and his family live in the coal-mining town of Roslyn, Washington, where immigrants from many countries have come to work in the mines. In Cuss, Franklin gives the reader a rich, memorable character who must choose between continuing his education and supporting his widowed mother and younger brother. Cuss’ growing sense of responsibility, his deep loyalty to his family, and the traditions of faith and hard work in his family create a convincing portrait of the hardships and the hopes of an American immigrant family in the early 1900s.

2003 Mississippi Trial, 1955 by Chris Crowe. In the summer of 1955, 16-year-old Hiram is living with his beloved grandfather in Greenwood, Mississippi when a horrific crime is committed. Despite a long and mysterious estrangement between Hiram's father and grandfather, Hiram reveres his aging grandfather, a white farmer in a racially divided town. That summer, Hiram strikes up an uneasy acquaintance with Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago who is visiting relatives in Greenwood. Hiram watches one of his white friends viciously force Emmett to eat a raw fish at knifepoint and does not intervene, foreshadowing Emmett's fate and Hiram's. After Emmett is rumored to have whistled at a white woman, he is dragged from his bed in the middle of the night and brutally murdered. The grandfather's racism becomes clear as the controversy surrounding Emmett unfolds, and Hiram's world is rocked. As an investigation into Emmett's murder begins, Hiram is called as a witness and begins to realize that he is witness to much more than the police know.

2002 Storm Warriors by Elisa Carbone. A brave African-American lifesaving team befriends and inspires a lonely boy on North Carolina's Outer Banks in the late 1890s.

2001 Blizzard: The Storm That Changed America by Jim Murphy. Presents a history, based on personal accounts and newspaper articles, of the massive snow storm that hit the Northeast in 1888, focusing on the events in New York City.

2000 Preacher's Boy by Katherine Paterson. In 1899, 10-year-old Robbie, son of a preacher in a small Vermont town, gets himself into all kinds of trouble when he decides to give up being Christian in order to make the most of his life before the end of the world.

1999 Soldier's Heart: A Novel of the Civil War by Gary Paulsen. Fifteen-year-old Charley Goddard is swept up in the excitement of the Civil War and eagerly enlists in the Union Army. The horrors of war do their damage to both Charley's body and mind; he returns from the war with soldier's heart.

1998 Leon's Story by Leon Walter Tillage. Born in 1936, Leon Walter Tillage reflects on his life as the son of a North Carolinian sharecropper. Tillage describes his experiences with the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow Laws, and the Civil Rights Movement.

1997 The Ornament Tree by Jean Thesman. Fourteen-year-old Bonnie Shaster moves to Seattle in 1918 to live with her genteel, elderly cousins. The cousins' reduced financial circumstances have forced them to take in an eclectic group of boarders. The conflicts between the boarders are interspersed with historical events, including the devastating flu epidemic, women's rights, labor strikes, class distinctions, and physical disabilities.

1996 The Great Fire by Jim Murphy. The magnitude of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 is described through personal accounts, fascinating details, and period illustrations.

1995 Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco. A 15-year-old white Union soldier meets a young black Union soldier who nurses him back to health. The two young men are later captured by the Confederate Army.

1994 Across America on an Emigrant Train by Jim Murphy. An absorbing history of the building of the transcontinental railroad is presented with recollections by Robert Louis Stevenson, who traveled from New York to Monterey. Period photographs and engravings capture the hardships and excitement of railroad travel in 1879.

1993 Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch by Jerry Stanley. During the Great Depression, families left Oklahoma and traveled to California in anticipation of finding work. Some of these families settled in "Weedpatch Camp," where they established a school for their children, complete with a swimming pool.

1992 The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane by Russell Freedman. An entertaining account of the Wrights' invention of the airplane. Their early attempts are captured in their own words and illustrated with numerous photographs.

1991 Franklin Delano Roosevelt by Russell Freedman. A lively account of Roosevelt's life, complete with extensive research, numerous photographs, and interesting anecdotes.

1990 Shades of Gray by Carolyn Reeder. Twelve-year-old Will has lost his entire immediate family in the Civil War and must move to Virginia. He will be living with an uncle who refused to fight in the war.

1989 Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave by Virginia Hamilton. A biography of Anthony Burns, who escaped from slavery and was recaptured back into slavery. The biography combines fact and fiction, with an afterward by the author to assist the reader in distinguishing between the two. Also included are selections from the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

1988 Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman. Awarded the Newbery Medal in 1988, this biography of Lincoln includes numerous photographs and fascinating facts about his life.

1987 After the Dancing Days by Margaret Rostkowski. Set in rural Kansas in World War I, a 13-year-old girl visits wounded soldiers in a veterans' hospital. Against her mother's wishes, Annie continues her visits and befriends a young soldier who is badly burned.

1986 Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan. Two young prairie children await the arrival of their father's mail-order bride. This Newbery Medal book is a sensitive story about loss and acceptance.

1985 In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord. Shirley Temple Wong arrives in America in the Year of the Boar (1947) and discovers the delights of baseball. A humorous look at a young immigrant's acclimation to America.

1984 Who Speaks for Wolf? by Paula Underwood Spencer. A Native-American oral tradition is captured in verse and illustrated with paintings and drawings. A grandfather instructs his grandson in how their people came to understand the value of living in harmony with each other and nature.

1983 Jewish Americans: A History in Their Words by Milton Meltzer. The story of Jewish Americans is conveyed in their own words through letters, speeches, interviews and various other means. Each section is introduced with historical information which provides the framework for the personal narratives.