The National Council of Teachers of English have announced the 2015 winner, honor books and recommended books for the Orbis Pictus Award.  The award was created in 1989 to promote and recognize excellence in writing of children’s nonfiction. 

2015 Winner

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & the Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming

 

Honor Books

 

A Home for Mr. Emerson by Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham

Mr. Ferris and His Wheel by Kathryn Gibbs Davis, illustrated by Gilbert Ford

 

The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet

Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh

Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos by Stephanie Roth Sisson

 

Recommended Books

 

Chasing Cheetahs: The Race to Save Africa’s Fastest Cats by Sy Montgomery, photographs by Nic Bishop

Eye to Eye: How Animals See the World by Steve Jenkins

 

The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement by Teri Kanefield

Little Melba and Her Big Trombone by Katheryn Russell-Brown, illustrated by Frank Morrison

 

Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting with the Great Whites of California’s Farallon Islands by Katherine Roy

The Scraps Book: Notes from a Colorful Life by Lois Ehlert

 

The Streak: How Joe DiMaggio Became America’s Hero by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Terry Widener

Strike!: The Farm Worker’s Fight for Their Rights by Larry Dane Brimner