#158 in Children’s books
The Whipping Boy
- 90
- Pages
- about 1.5 h
- Reading time
- Newbery Medal
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Our view
“The Whipping Boy” is a compact, Newbery Medal-winning adventure about a spoiled prince and the boy who is punished in his place. Sid Fleischman fits action, rogues and a lesson in friendship into about ninety pages. Adult readers are not all convinced: to some it feels slight and soon forgotten, while others think it well pitched for children of roughly six to ten.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Whipping Boy is a Newbery Medal-winning children's book by Sid Fleischman, first published in 1986.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.1 across 52 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 26% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Children’s books average of 7.9. That is how 7.7 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.2 | 10 | 19% |
| Hardcover | 7.0 | 42 | 81% |
Frequently asked
What age is The Whipping Boy for?
The Whipping Boy sits on the Children shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 5–10. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 90 pages — shorter than 79% of the ranked books in Children’s books.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Children’s books — with scores between 7.7 and 7.9, closest to this book.
