Awarded by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the Orbis Pictus Award is given annually to promote and recognize excellence in the writing of nonfiction for children. The name Orbis Pictus commemorates the work of Johannes Amos Comenius, Orbis Pictus—The World in Pictures (1657), considered to be the first book actually planned for children.
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2014 A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
Presents an illustrated introduction to the life and work of artist Horace Pippin, describing his childhood love for drawing and the World War I injury that challenged his career.
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2013 Monsieur Marceau: Actor without Words by Leda Schubert, illustrated by Gérard DuBois
Marcel Marceau, the world’s most famous mime, enthralled audiences around the world for more than fifty years. When he waved his hand or lifted his eyebrow he was able to speak volumes without ever saying a word. But few know the story of the man behind those gestures . . .
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2012 Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade by Melissa Sweet
A tribute to the first creator of the giant helium balloons that fill the sky during the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade traces the work of pioneering artist Tony Sarg, whose innovative “upside-down puppet” creations have become the parade’s trademark.
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2011 Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, illustrated by Brian Floca
Martha Graham : trailblazing choreographer
Aaron Copland : distinguished American composer
Isamu Noguchi : artist, sculptor, craftsman
Award-winning authors Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan tell the story behind the scenes of the collaboration that created APPALACHIAN SPRING, from its inception through the score’s composition to Martha’s intense rehearsal process. The authors’ collaborator is two-time Sibert Honor winner Brian Floca, whose vivid watercolors bring both the process and the performance to life.
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2010 The Secret World of Walter Anderson by Hester Bass, illustrated by E.B. Lewis
Enter the fascinating world of reclusive nature-lover Walter Anderson — perhaps the most famous American artist you’ve never heard of. Residents along the Mississippi Gulf Coast thought Walter Anderson was odd, rowing across twelve miles of open water in a leaky skiff to reach Horn, an uninhabited island without running water or electricity. But this solitary artist didn’t much care what they thought as he spent weeks at a time on his personal paradise, sleeping under his boat, sometimes eating whatever washed ashore, sketching and painting the natural surroundings and the animals that became his friends. Here Walter created some of his most brilliant watercolors, work he kept hidden during his lifetime. In a beautifully crafted picture book biography, writer Hester Bass and Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator E. B. Lewis pay homage to an uncompromising American artist.
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2009 Amelia Earhart: The Legend of the Lost Aviator by Shelley Tanaka, illustrated by David Craig
Ever since Amelia Earhart and her plane disappeared on July 2, 1937, people have wanted to know more about this remarkable woman. Amelia Earhart follows the charismatic aviator from her first sight of an airplane at the age of ten to the last radio transmission she made before she vanished. Illustrated with original artworks, contemporary photographs, quotes, and details, this is a great introduction to the famous pilot.
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2008 M.L.K. Journey of a King by Tonya Bolden
Brings words and pictures together to tell the life story of one of America’s greatest figures and his important philosophy of selfless love for one’s neighbor.
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2007 Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea by Sy Montgomery, Photos by Nic Bishop
Follow a group of explorers and scientists as they travel to Papua New Guinea to find a type of kangaroo that lives in trees.
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2006 Children of the Great Depression by Russell Freedman
As he did for frontier children in his enormously popular Children of the Wild West, Russell Freedman illuminates the lives of the American children affected by the economic and social changes of the Great Depression. Middle-class urban youth, migrant farm laborers, boxcar kids, children whose families found themselves struggling for survival . . . all Depression-era young people faced challenges like unemployed and demoralized parents, inadequate food and shelter, schools they couldn’t attend because they had to go to work, schools that simply closed their doors. Even so, life had its bright spots–like favorite games and radio shows–and many young people remained upbeat and optimistic about the future. Drawing on memoirs, diaries, letters, and other firsthand accounts, and richly illustrated with classic archival photographs, this book by one of the most celebrated authors of nonfiction for children places the Great Depression in context and shows young readers its human face.
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2005 York’s Adventures with Lewis and Clark: An African-American’s Part in the Great Expedition by Rhoda Blumberg
Did you know that an African-American man participated in Lewis and Clark’s famous expedition? Working alongside free men, Clark’s slave York played an important role in the journey’s success. This award-winning book draws on extensive research to give a gripping and insightful account of York’s significant contribution to this landmark historical event.
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2004 An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy
1793, Philadelphia. The nation’s capital and the largest city in North America is devastated by an apparently incurable disease, cause unknown . . . In a powerful, dramatic narrative, critically acclaimed author Jim Murphy describes the illness known as yellow fever and the toll it took on the city’s residents, relating the epidemic to the major social and political events of the day and to 18th-century medical beliefs and practices. Drawing on first-hand accounts, Murphy spotlights the heroic role of Philadelphia’s free blacks in combating the disease, and the Constitutional crisis that President Washington faced when he was forced to leave the city–and all his papers–while escaping the deadly contagion. The search for the fever’s causes and cure, not found for more than a century afterward, provides a suspenseful counterpoint to this riveting true story of a city under siege. Thoroughly researched, generously illustrated with fascinating archival prints, and unflinching in its discussion of medical details, this Newbery Honor-winning book offers a glimpse into the conditions of American cities at the time of our nation’s birth while drawing timely parallels to modern-day epidemics.
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2003 When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson: The Voice of a Century by Pam Munoz Ryan, illustrated by Brian Selznick
An introduction to the life of Marian Anderson, extraordinary singer and civil rights activist, who was the first African American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera, whose life and career encouraged social change.
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2002 Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850 by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
In 1845, a disaster struck Ireland. Overnight, a mysterious blight attacked the potato crops, turning the potatoes black and destroying the only real food of nearly six million people. Over the next five years, the blight attacked again and again. These years are known today as the Great Irish Famine, a time when one million people died from starvation and disease and two million more fled their homeland. Black Potatoes is the compelling story of men, women, and children who defied landlords and searched empty fields for scraps of harvested vegetables and edible weeds to eat, who walked several miles each day to hard-labor jobs for meager wages and to reach soup kitchens, and who committed crimes just to be sent to jail, where they were assured of a meal. It’s the story of children and adults who suffered from starvation, disease, and the loss of family and friends, as well as those who died. Illustrated with black and white engravings, it’s also the story of the heroes among the Irish people and how they held on to hope.
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2001 Hurry Freedom: African Americans in Gold Rush California by Jerry Stanley
Among the thousands drawn west by the California Gold Rush were many African Americans. Some were free men and women in search of opportunity; others were slaves brought from the slave states of the South. Some found freedom and wealth in the gold fields and growing cities of California, but all faced the deeply entrenched prejudices of the era. To tell this story “Hurry Freedom!” focuses on the life of Mifflin Gibbs, who arrived in San Francisco in 1850 and established a successful boot and shoe business. But Gibbs’s story is more than one of business and personal success: With other African American San Franciscans, he led a campaign to obtain equal legal and civil rights for Blacks in California.
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2000 Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges, Margo Lundell
Ruby Bridges recounts the story of her involvement, as a six-year-old, in the integration of her school in New Orleans in 1960.
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1999 Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance by Jennifer Armstrong
In August 1914, Ernest Shackleton and 27 men sailed from England in an attempt to become the first team of explorers to cross Antarctica from one side to the other. Five months later and still 100 miles from land, their ship, Endurance, became trapped in ice. The expedition survived another five months camping on ice floes, followed by a perilous journey through stormy seas to remote and unvisited Elephant Island. In a dramatic climax to this amazing survival story, Shackleton and five others navigated 800 miles of treacherous open ocean in a 20-foot boat to fetch a rescue ship. Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World vividly re-creates one of the most extraordinary adventure stories in history. Jennifer Armstrong narrates this unbelievable story with vigor, an eye for detail, and an appreciation of the marvelous leadership of Shackleton, who brought home every one of his men alive.
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1998 An Extraordinary Life: The Story of a Monarch Butterfly by Laurence Pringle
Introduces the life cycle, feeding habits, migration, predators, and mating of the monarch butterfly through the observation of one particular monarch named Danaus.
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1997 Leonardo da Vinci by Diane Stanley
A biography of the Italian Renaissance artist and inventor includes notebook sketches that reveal his observations of anatomy and science, his ideas for a flying machine, and such paintings as the Mona Lisa and Last Supper.
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1996 The Great Fire by Jim Murphy
A veritible cinematic account of the catastrophe that decimated much of Chicago in 1871, forcing more than 100,000 people from their homes. Jim Murphy tells the story through the eyes of several survivors. These characters serve as dramatic focal points as the fire sweeps across the city, their stories illuminated by fascinating archival photos and maps outlining the spread of fire.
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1995 Safari Beneath the Sea: The Wonder World of the North Pacific Coast by Diane Swanson
Illustrated with full-color photographs from the Royal British Columbia Museum, this book introduces some of the North Pacific’s most fascinating aquatic inhabitants, spotlighting their unusual characteristics and habits.
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1994 Across America on an Emigrant Train by Jim Murphy
An account of Robert Louis Stevenson’s twelve day journey from New York to California in 1879, interwoven with a history of the building of the transcontinental railroad and the settling of the West.
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1993 Children in the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp by Jerry Stanley
Illus. with photographs from the Dust Bowl era. This true story took place at the emergency farm-labor camp immortalized in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Ostracized as “dumb Okies,” the children of Dust Bowl migrant laborers went without school–until Superintendent Leo Hart and 50 Okie kids built their own school in a nearby field.
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1992 Flight: The Journey of Charles Lindbergh by Robert Burleigh illustrated by Mike Wimmer
Describes how Charles Lindbergh achieved the remarkable feat of flying nonstop and solo from New York to Paris in 1927.
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1991 Franklin Delano Roosevelt by Russell Freedman
Photographs and text trace the life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt from his birth in 1882 through his youth, early political career, and presidency, to his death in Warm Springs, Georgia, in 1945.
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1990 The Great Little Madison by Jean Fritz
Traces the life and contributions of the sickly child with the small voice who grew up to become the fourth president of the United States.
The Giverny Award is an annual children’s science picture book award established in 1998 by Dr. Jim Wandersee and Dr. Elisabeth E. Schussler. IT is awarded by 15° Laboratory, a research laboratory founded in 1996 for the ultimate purpose of helping today’s K-12 and college students understand the big ideas in contemporary life sciences, especially through visual representation. Later, the mission was expanded to improving public understanding of science in informal science education venues.
This lift-the-flap picture book tells the story of Sam, a cat who loves the sun and wants to grow some big yellow sunflowers. Children can read about how he plants his seeds and watches them grow, and, by lifting the flaps, can see what is happening to the plant under the ground.
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Children's Reading Suggestions 