Orphan stories in children’s literature are rich and complex, and they have historically permeated the pages of children’s books. The purpose of this study was to explore the use of orphans as protagonists in children’s award-winning literature through content analysis. This study utilizes all the Newbery Award winning books (1922–2011) as well as the Newbery Honor books of the last decade (2002–2011) to provide a wide and deep swath of novels in order to present both historical perspective and attention to current trends.