 |
Choosing Award-winning Nonfiction Writing for Children: Three Perspectives
"Imagination, invention, selection, language, form—these are just as important to the making of a good book of biography, history, or science as to
the making of a piece of fiction," wrote Milton Meltzer in 1976. At the time that Meltzer's article, "Where Do All the Prizes Go? The Case for Nonfiction," appeared in the February 1976 issue of The Horn Book Magazine,
there were no awards designated specifically for nonfiction writing for children. The following year, The Children's Book Guild presented their first-ever Award for Nonfiction to David Macaulay. Today, in addition to the
Guild's nonfiction award, several awards exist to recognize and highlight the best of nonfiction writing for children. The Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children, sponsored by the National Council of
Teachers of English (NCTE), and the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award, sponsored by the Association of Library Services to Children (ALSC), are two of these awards. At the invitation of The Children's Book Council, the
2002 chairpersons of the Selection Committees for the three above-mentioned awards each discusses his or her respective award's eligibility criteria and selection processes, as well as the committee members' responsibilities
when choosing an award winner. In the recent book, From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing Children's Books (HarperCollins), author Kathleen T. Horning states: "Whatever their motivation for reading nonfiction, children deserve to have books of information that are accurate, engaging, and well written." Nonfiction awards help to identify the best of those "accurate, engaging, and well written" works of nonfiction for children. Here is a glimpse at how those award winners are chosen.
* There are several awards now given for nonfiction writing for children. For further information about these and other nonfiction awards, the Council suggested
asking your school or local children's librarian. Additional information can also be found on the Internet.
The Washington Post-Children's Book Guild Award for Nonfiction
Jewell Stoddard, Chair, 2002 Award Committee
TheWashington Post-Children's Book Guild Award for Nonfiction is granted each year to an "author or author/illustrator whose total body of work has
contributed significantly to the quality of nonfiction for children." The Children's Book Guild is a sixty-five-year-old organization of authors and illustrators of at least two published works and a selection of members from
the community of librarians and children's literature specialists of Washington, D. C. The Guild presented its first award to David Macaulay in 1977. In 1982, TheWashington Post joined the Guild as a sponsor, and over the years, they have also donated publicity through the newspaper. The recipient is given a cash prize and an inscribed crystal paperweight at a luncheon, held in November during Children's Book Week, at which the winner is also invited to give a speech.
The 2002 Award will be given to George Ancona for outstanding and dynamic books that take his readers into the lives of people of different ethnic groups in the
United States and Latin America. The 2001 winner was Jim Murphy. The Guild has honored many of the best nonfiction writers in the country: Jim Arnosky, Brent Ashabranner, Isaac Asimov, Rhoda Blumberg, Joanna Cole, Leonard
Everett Fisher, Russell Freedman, Jean Fritz, Jean Craighead George, Gail Gibbons, James Cross Giblin, James Haskins, Tana Hoban, Jill Krementz, Kathryn Lasky, Patricia Lauber, Albert Marrin, Milton Meltzer, Laurence Pringle,
Seymour Simon, and Diane Stanley.
The Award Committee consists of three current Guild members plus the previous year's committee chair. Members of the Guild are invited to suggest authors for
consideration by June, and the committee meets to choose a number of possibilities for extensive summer reading. At a late summer or early fall meeting of the committee, everyone brings books and notes and winnows the list to
several candidates. Further reading is followed by a meeting to choose the award recipient from these nominees.
The committee is given simple guidelines. The Guild defines nonfiction "as written or illustrated work which arranges and interprets documentable facts intended
to illuminate, without imaginative invention the following fields of knowledge: science, technology, social science, history, biography and the arts." They consider quality in writing and illustrating, accuracy and literary
distinction, and in the case of author/illustrators, artistic excellence; a substantial body of work, stimulating presentation of ideas and facts that demand intellectual participation and challenge from young readers, and
lively writing or illustration that has reader appeal.
Since the committee is so small, there is little likelihood of a winner who doesn't appeal to everyone in the group, so service on the committee is a special
pleasure. The 2002 Award Committee, which I chaired, included librarian Maria Salvadore, illustrator Rozalyn Schanzer and author Rebecca Jones, the 2001 committee chair. The conversations were stimulating: Becky treated us to
the kinds of critiques that she uses in her journalism classes, Maria and I brought our skills as book selectors for library and bookstore, respectively, and Rozalyn kept us enthralled with her analysis of illustration and book
design. George Ancona was our happy and unanimous choice.
Jewell Stoddard was co-owner of the Cheshire Cat Book Store, which opened in 1977 as one of the first children's bookstores in the country.
Since closing the store in 1999, she has been director of children's services at Politics & Prose, an independent bookstore in Washington, D.C. She has served on the Caldecott and Boston-Globe Horn Book Award committees,
and consults with schools, libraries, and museums about children's books.
Orbis Pictus Award
Richard M. Kerper, Co-chair, 2002 Award Committee
Choosing a single prize-winning book is like telling one son that he may attend his high school prom and the others that they must remain at home. Each child is
unique and worthy in his own right, but none is perfect. So flawlessness is not the determining factor in the decision. Limited resources force the choice to be made. Likewise, the limitations on an award make the choice of one
book necessary. From the wonderful nonfiction books published each year, the Orbis Pictus Committee must select one book as the most outstanding nonfiction work for children in comparison to the others published in the same
calendar year.
As committee members fulfill their obligation to read the hundreds of new nonfiction books, we keep four primary criteria in mind—accuracy, organization,
design, and style. Each leads to consideration of critical aspects of a literary work.
- Accuracy — We look for nonfiction books that leave us confident about the correctness of the information contained within them. Documentation of the
sources from which information is drawn is crucial in our evaluation process. Since pictorial representations of ideas are common in nonfiction, this need for documentation applies to the images as well as the words. The
inclusion of predetermined purposes as explanations of natural phenomena or the assignment of human qualities to non-human life or objects weakens our assessment of a book's accuracy.
- Organization — Committee members note nonfiction material that unfolds in a logical manner determined by the nature of the content. The best nonfiction
books make their overarching structures as well as their embedded structures apparent. Access features such as tables of content and headings aid our detection of this organization. Recently, we have noted the presentation
of some information in sidebars, empowering readers to make decisions about how a book will be read. The physical nature of this type of informational display overlaps with our evaluation of the next criterion, design.
- Design — We value nonfiction books that have an appearance that matches the content of the book. The shape of the book, the layout of the pages, the
appearance of the font, the type of paper used and many other physical aspects of a book influence its communication with us. Thus, a book's design impacts our aesthetic sensibilities.
- Style — Finally, we look for nonfiction books that are written in a way that draws us into the subject. We find enticing lead sentences and language that
paints pictures in our minds in the best nonfiction. We often note a rhythm to the language that contributes to the books overall impact upon us. These and other stylistic choices showcase the content being presented.
Since finding the "perfect" book is an elusive goal, we note the strengths and limitations of each book as we read it. In doing so, we also take one
other factor into account—the book's usefulness in the K-8 school curriculum. This criterion is rather nebulous since school curricula are locally controlled. So, in comparison to the first four criteria this one is of
secondary importance. We are always aware of the child between the ages of five and fourteen who might read the prizewinner for self-determined purposes or the parent who might choose to read the book to a child. In the end,
the committee's decision spotlights a book that is not necessarily useful in all schools' curricula but is in some, a book that is not necessarily appealing to all young readers or their parents but is to many. So in the end,
what book captures the Orbis Pictus Award? It is the one book that is unique and worthy—not perfect—a book that the Award Committee identifies as a truly distinguished piece of literature.
Richard M. Kerper directs the Center for the Study of Children's Literature at Millersville University. He is an Associate Professor of children's literature, teaching a course in nonfiction literature. Kerper is co-editor of The Best in Children's Nonfiction (NCTE) and a contributor to Making Facts Come Alive (Christopher-Gordon Publishers).
Robert F. Sibert Informational Books Award
Nina Lindsay, Chair, 2002 Selection Committee
"Informational books are absolutely essential for school and public libraries as they help young people explore the world around them. It is only fitting that
there be an award that encourages excellence in these types of books," said Robert F. Sibert, longtime president of Bound-to-Stay-Bound Books. In his memory, the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC) division of
the American Library Association established the ALSC/Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award, presented for the first time in 2001 to Marc Aronson for Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado (Clarion).
The award recognizes the author of the most distinguished informational book published during the preceding year. Informational books are defined as those
written and illustrated to present, organize, and interpret documentable factual material for children. The book must be an original work, and poetry and traditional literature (such as folktales) are not eligible. The author
must be a citizen or resident of the United States and published in the United States.
The terms and criteria for the award are available in full at www.ala.org/alsc/sibert_terms.html. In identifying a "distinguished" informational book, committee
members consider "clarity and accuracy of presentation in both text and illustrative material, as well as appropriate documentation, distinctive use of language, excellent artistic presentation in illustration."
"Appropriateness of style of presentation," is another consideration. Books are eligible as long as children are "the potential audience," and children are
defined as "persons of ages up to and including fourteen years." The award is "not for didactic intent or for popularity." Rather, it is intended to honor the author whose work of nonfiction has made a "significant
contribution" to the field of children's literature, gauged by "…how well the entire work elucidates, clarifies and enlivens its subject." So rather than considering the potential use or popularity of a title (qualities that
might affect purchasing decisions), committee members consider the quality of presentation of the information to the intended audience. Books for toddlers and lengthy biographies, "browsers" and "report books," all must be
culled for their distinguished aspects.
Taking all of this into consideration, committee members might ask: How well do the illustrations explain and extend the information? Do the organization and
design serve the communication of the information? How authoritative is the information? Has the author given the reader enough information in the text or in notes to let the reader gauge the authority? Is there appropriate
documentation, or other ancillary matter, such as an accurate glossary or index? Does a history book illuminate the historical process—or a science book the scientific process? And always: Is the writing distinguished?
Susan Faust, chair of the 2001 Selection Committee, identifies some of the qualities that the first year's committee found in the books of the award winners in
her article "In Quest of Excellence" (School Library Journal, June 2001). She begins with the phrase, "Beyond Authority, Passion," noting that the award-winning authors exhibit both "solid authority" and "passionate
interest in their subjects." This is what the criteria of the Sibert Award demand, calling on authors to enliven as well as elucidate, and their works to be distinctive, engaging, and stimulating.
Nina Lindsay, chairperson of the 2002 Sibert Informational Book Award Selection Committee, also served on the 2001 committee. She is a
Children's Services Librarian at the Oakland Public Library, in California.
|
Past Perspectives:
Perspectives Archives
|