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.
Past Winners of the Orbis Pictus Award:
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 |
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