History Main / DeathByNewberyMedal

!!'''As a DeathTrope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

!!Examples

''Literature/BridgeToTerabithia'' won a [[UsefulNotes/NewberyMedal Newbery]] for its handling of the topics embodied by this trope. Thirteen years later, ''Literature/{{Shiloh}}'' may have won its medal because it ''didn't'' go for the easy win by [[AvertedTrope killing off the dog at the end]] (there were still three sequels to be written, after all).

* Taken to soul-crushingly depressing levels in Karen Hesse's ''Literature/OutOfTheDust'', the 1998 UsefulNotes/NewberyMedal winner. The main character's mother's body is [[BodyHorror disfigured]] in a horrific freak accident, she later dies while [[DeathByChildbirth giving birth to a baby boy]], and, to put the icing on the cake, the whole mess could've been avoided if the protagonist hadn't been in the wrong place at the wrong time. [[EarnYourHappyEnding She gets better]].

* Parodied by ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'' in "The Silence of the Louise". Louise ends her book report on ''Old Yeller'' with the observation that all "classic children's literature" ends with a cute animal dying.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981'' episode titled "Squeaky", in which Smurfette finds and befriends a sick mouse. With the help of Papa Smurf, the mouse is nursed back to health, but dies later after being in a house fire.

* The ''WesternAnimation/CasperTheFriendlyGhost'' short ''WesternAnimation/TheresGoodBoosTonight'' focuses on how Casper befriends a fox named Ferdie. Towards the end of the short, Ferdie is shot by hunters and comes back to Casper as a ghost.

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E7JurassicBark Jurassic Bark]]" - Fry finds the fossil of his dog, and the rest of the episode chronicles Fry dealing with the angst from the death of his dog, and his eventually letting it go in the end. The end of the episode makes this tragic by showing the dog spent the rest of its natural life waiting for Fry to come back, but this was retconned even later into showing Seymour did live and die happily with a time-paradox clone of Fry that was accidentally created by an unrelated incident.

* The ''WesternAnimation/DefendersOfTheEarth'' episode "Audie and Tweak" involves the heroes going to a [[IntelligenceEqualsIsolation socially isolated supergenius]] named Audie who has developed organic microchips that he uses in his robot buddy, Tweak - who also happens to be his ONLY friend. By the end of the episode, Tweak is fatally damaged. Due to his unique construction from organic microchips, he cannot be repaired or rebuilt. The death of his robot, however, leads to [[BittersweetEnding Audie gaining real live friends.]]
* The ''{{WesternAnimation/Rugrats}}'' episode, "I Remember Melville". Chuckie has a pillbug named Melville which he takes in as a pet and as a friend. However, after only a few minutes in, he unexpectedly dies and it is here where Chuckie and the rest of the babies go through the process and concept of death.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Sixteen}}'' episode "Fish and Make Up", Jude's pet fish [[ADogNamedDog (named Fish)]] dies at the end of the episode due to improper (yet well-meaning) care from his owner. Jude is quite broken up about it, and when Jen arranges a funeral, the main cast comes to term with Fish's death. And this was the episode that got the show its first award nomination.
* Invoked ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Thursdays with Abie". Grampa makes friends with an aspiring author, who writes a biography about his life. Later, Homer goes through the author's office and finds a UsefulNotes/PulitzerPrize application form and a draft of the book's final chapter saying that Abe died peacefully in his sleep, making him realize that he is plotting to kill Grampa for the sake of getting the award.

* The ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' episode "Grandpa's Sister". When Phil and his sister Mitzi were kids, they had a dog named Pooter that got out and was hit by a milk truck, then had to be put down when the vet couldn't do anything to help. Naturally, they blame each other for him getting out.
* The ''Il Etait une Foisl'homme'' episode "Neanderthal Man" ends with Neanderthal!Maestro dying of old age and in his sleep. His friends then bury him with a spear, some fruit, a small sculpture, and a charm necklace.
* The ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' episode "Cookie Chomper III" revolves around the chipmunks and Dave adopting a kitten. Then one night, the kitten gets out through a window and is killed by a car, leaving the chipmunks to come to terms with his death.
* Parodied, along with other Oscar Bait-related tropes, with "Oscar Gold" in the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Tearjerker", where Roger (aka Tearjerker) makes very sad movies in a plot to get audiences to cry to death. The aforementioned movie is about a mentally handicapped Jew with alcoholism with a cancer-ridden puppy during the Holocaust. Eventually, the dog dies.
** In the same episode, there were plans to make an even sadder movie about a [[PleaseWakeUp baby chimpanzee trying to revive its dead mother.]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows", the A-plot involves Brian caring for an agoraphobic old woman whom at first he doesn't get along with, but befriends after seeing a documentary about her. She is run over by the end of the episode and doesn't make it. The episode won an Emmy, but it wasn't for the death, but for its song.
** Brian's death in the episode "Life of Brian", this time plays the trope straight.

* In the ''Series/TheBigComfyCouch'' Season 3 finale "Full of Life", Loonette learns about death from Granny Garbanzo when the caterpillar she had befriended minutes earlier suddenly dies.

* Another Chris Crutcher book, ''Literature/RunningLoose'', has the protagonist Louie's girlfriend Becky die, also by a car crash into a river, and in its short story sequel, ''In the Time I Get'' from the anthology ''Athletic Shorts,'' he befriends a young man dying of AIDS.

* ''Ned and The Joybaloo'' has Ned become addicted to the eponymous magical creature's joy-bringing escapades, to the point of him ignoring the smaller things in life and exhausting the Joybaloo until it disappears completely, forcing him to create joy in other ways.

** The sequel is about Miles attempting to avert this trope: Miguel O'Hara and the Spider-Society believe that there are canon events in each Spider-Man's life that have to happen or the fabric of the multiverse might fall apart. Miles finds out [[spoiler: his father is supposed to die according to this belief, and is determined to find a way to save both the multiverse and his dad.]] The film ends on a cliffhanger, so as of now it's unknown whether this trope will be subverted or not, but [[spoiler: Gwen's father and Pavitr's girlfriend's father both seemingly aviod this fate, which indicates it's possible.]]

All this is generally accompanied by lots of "[[InnocenceLost end of the innocence]]" angsting from the main character, along the lines of "[[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids That was the day my childhood ended...]]" Really, it's just the author's way of having a child suddenly make the jump to adulthood via a [[MyGreatestFailure single defining tragedy]].[[note]]In cases where the victim is a dog, this can be justified in that the average lifespan of a typical dog is around eleven to twelve years. Since it's not recommended to get a dog until the child is around five or six, this would result in the dog dying when they reach their late teens. It also matches the typical age when someone is attending school.[[/note]]