What inspires you?

I have always been curious about what inspires us on a day to day basis?
for me:
every time I see a bright orange California poppy makes me so happy!

The Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children

Orbis Pictus Award is awarded annually to one American book published in the previous year.  NCTE established the award in 1990 to promote and recognize excellence in nonfiction writing. The award is named in commemoration of the book considered the very first picture book Orbis Pictus : The World in Pictures by Johann Comenius published in 1657.  Up to five titles can be designated as honor books. 

Book	Author	Award
The Great Little Madison	Jean Fritz	Orbis Pictus 1990
The Great American Gold Rush	Rhoda Blumberg	Honor 1990
The News about Dinosaurs	Patricia Lauber	Honor 1990
Franklin Delano Roosevelt	Russell Freedman	Orbis Pictus 1991
Arctic Memories	Normee Ekoomiak	Honor 1991
Seeing Earth from Space	Patricia Lube	Honor 1991
1992 Flight: The Journey of Charles Lindbergh	Robert Burleigh illustrated by Mike Wimmer	Orbis Pictus 1992
Now Is Your Time! The African American Struggle for Freedom	Walter Dean Myers	Honor 1992
Prairie Vision: The Life and Times of Solomon Butcher	Pam Conrad	Honor 1992
Children in the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp	Jerry Stanley	Orbis Pictus 1993
Come Back, Salmon	Molly Cone	Honor 1993
Talking with Artists	Pat Cummings	Honor 1993
Across America on an Emigrant Train	Jim Murphy	Orbis Pictus 1994
Making Sense: Animal Perception and Communication	Bruce Brooks	Honor 1994
To the Top of the World: Adventures with Arctic Wolves	Jim Brandenburg	Honor 1994
Safari Beneath the Sea: The Wonder World of the North Pacific Coast	Diane Swanson	Orbis Pictus 1995
Christmas in the Big House, hristmas in the Quarters	Patricia C. McKissack & Frederick L. McKissack	Honor 1995
Wildlife Rescue: The Work of Dr. Kathleen Ramsay	Jennifer Owings Dewey	Honor 1995
Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor	Russell Freedman	Honor 1995
The Great Fire	Jim Murphy	Orbis Pictus 1996
Dolphin Man: Exploring the World of Dolphins by Lawrence Pringle, photographs	Randall S. Wells	Honor 1996
Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II	Penny Colman	Honor 1996
Leonardo da Vinci	Diane Stanley	Orbis Pictus 1997
Full Steam Ahead: The Race to Build a Transcontinental Railroad	Rhonda Blumberg	Honor 1997
The Life and Death of Crazy Horse	Russell Freedman	Honor 1997
One World, Many Religions: The Ways We Worship	Mary Pope Osborne	Honor 1997
An Extraordinary Life: The Story of a Monarch Butterfly A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder by Walter Wick	Laurence Pringle	Orbis Pictus 1998
A Tree is Growing	Arthur Dorros	Honor 1998
Charles A. Lindbergh: A Human Hero	James Cross Giblin	Honor 1998
Kennedy Assassinated! The World Mourns: A Reporter’s Story	Wilborn Hampton	Honor 1998
Digger: The Tragic Fate of the California Indians from the Missions to the Gold Rush	Jerry Stanley	Honor 1998
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extaordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance	Jennifer Armstrong	Orbis Pictus 1999
Black Whiteness: Admiral Byrd Alone in the Antarctic by Robert Burleigh	Walter Lyon Krudop	Honor 1999
Fossil Feud: The Rivalry of the First American Dinosaur Hunters	Thom Holmes	Honor 1999
Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest	Steve Jenkins	Honor 1999
No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War	Anita Lobel	Honor 1999
Through My Eyes	Ruby Bridges, Margo Lundell	Orbis Pictus 2000
At Her Majesty’s Request: An African Princess in Victorian England	Walter Dean Myers	Honor 2000
Clara Schumann: Piano Virtuoso	Susanna Reich	Honor 2000
Mapping the World	Sylvia A. Johnson	Honor 2000
The Snake Scientist	Sy Montgomery illustrated by Nic Bishop	Honor 2000
The Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest	Steve Jenkins	Honor 2000
Hurry Freedom: African Americans in Gold Rush California	Jerry Stanley	Orbis Pictus 2001
The Amazing Life of Benjamin Franklin	James Giblin, illustrated by Michael Dooling	Honor 2001
America’s Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle	David A. Adler, illustrated by Terry Widener	Honor 2001
Michelangelo	Diane Stanley	Honor 2001
Osceola:Memories of a Sharecropper’s Daughter	Alan B. Govenar, illustrated by Shane Evans	Honor 2001
Wild & Swampy	Jim Arnosky	Honor 2001
Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850	Susan Campbell Bartoletti	Orbis Pictus 2002
The Cod’s Tale by	Mark Kurlansky, illustrated by S.D. Schindler	Honor 2002
The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins: An Illuminating History of Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, Artist and Lecturer	Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Brian Selznick	Honor 2002
Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr	Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Bryan Collier	Honor 2002
When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson: The Voice of a Century	Pam Munoz Ryan, illustrated by Brian Selznick	Orbis Pictus 2003
Confucius: The Golden Rule	Russell Freedman, illustrated by Frederic Clement	Honor 2003
Emperor's Silent Army: Terracotta Warriors of Ancient China	Jane O’Connor	Honor 2003
Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science	John Fleischman	Honor 2003
Tenement: Immigrant Life on the Lower East Side	Raymond Bial	Honor 2003
To Fly: The Story of the Wright Brothers	Wendie C. Old, illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker	Honor 2003
An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793	Jim Murphy	Orbis Pictus 2004
Empire State Building: When New York Reached for the Skies	Elizabeth Mann, illustrated by Alan Witschonke	Honor 2004
In Defense of Liberty: The Story of America’s Bill of Rights	Russell Freedman	Honor 2004
Leonardo: Beautiful Dreamer	Robert Byrd	Honor 2004
The Man Who Made Time Travel	Kathryn Lasky, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes	Honor 2004
Shutting Out the Sky: Life in the Tenements of New York, 1880-1924	Deborah Hopkinson	Honor 2004
York’s Adventures with Lewis and Clark: An African-American’s Part in the Great Expedition	by Rhoda Blumberg	Orbis Pictus 2005
Actual Size	Steve Jenkins	Honor 2005
The Race to Save the Lord God Bird	Phillip Hoose	Honor 2005
Secrets of the Sphinx	James Cross Giblin illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline	Honor 2005
Seurat and La Grande Jatte: Connecting the Dots	Robert Burleigh	Honor 2005
The Voice That Challenged A Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights	Russell Freedman	Honor 2005
Children of the Great Depression	Russell Freedman	Orbis Pictus 2006
ER Vets: Life in an Animal Emergency Room	Donna Jackson	Honor 2006
Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and Her Students	Suzanne Jurmain	Honor 2006
Genius: A Photobiography of Albert Einstein	Marfe Ferguson Delano	Honor 2006
Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow	Susan Campbell Bartoletti	Honor 2006
Mosquito Bite	Alexandra Siy and Dennis Kunkel	Honor 2006
Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea	Sy Montgomery, Photos by Nic Bishop	Orbis Pictus 2007
Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas	Cheryl Bardoe, illustrated by Jos. A. Smith	Honor 2007
Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott	Russell Freedman	Honor 2007
John Muir: America’s First Environmentalist	Kathryn Lasky, illustrated by Stan Fellows	Honor 2007
Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium	Carla Killough McClafferty	Honor 2007
Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon	Catherine Thimmesh	Honor 2007
M.L.K. Journey of a King	Tonya Bolden	Orbis Pictus 2008
Black and White Airman: Their True History	John Fleischman	Honor 2008
Spiders	Nic Bishop	Honor 2008
Helen Keller: Her Life in Pictures	George Sulliva	Honor 2008
Muckrakers	Ann Bausum	Honor 2008
Venom	Marilyn Singer	Honor 2008
Amelia Earhart: The Legend of the Lost Aviator	Shelley Tanaka, illustrated David Craig	Orbis Pictus 2009
George Washington Carver	Tonya Bolden	Honor 2009
The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary	Candace Fleming	Honor 2009
Washington at Valley Forge	Russell Freedman	Honor 2009
We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball	Kadir Nelson	Honor 2009
When the Wolves Returned: Restoring Nature's Balance in Yellowstone	Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, illustrated by Dan and Cassie Hartman	Honor 2009
The Secret World of Walter Anderson	Hester Bass, illustrated by E.B. Lewis	Orbis Pictus 2010
Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream	Tanya Lee Stone	Honor 2010
Darwin: With Glimpses into His Private Journal and Letters	Alice B. McGinty	Honor 2010
The Frog Scientist	Pamela S. Turner	Honor 2010
How Many Baby Pandas?	Sandra Markle	Honor 2010
Noah Webster: Weaver of Words	Pegi Deitz Shea	Honor 2010