2015 NCTE Children’s Book Awards Announced
Contact: Debbie Zagorski, 800-369-6283, ext. 3612; dzagorski@ncte.org
Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction
Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction
Urbana, IL — January 27, 2015 — Rain, Reign by Ann M. Martin, Feiwel and Friends publishers, has received the Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children and The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & the Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming, Schwartz & Wade publishers, has received the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children from NCTE.
Both awards promote and recognize excellence in children’s literature. The Charlotte Huck Award recognizes fiction for children that has the potential to transform their lives and the Orbis Pictus Award recognizes excellence in the writing of nonfiction for children. Each year, one winner, up to five honorable mention books, and a list of recommended titles are selected for each award.
On Wednesday, February 4, at 8 p.m. ET on Google on Air, NCTE will present a discussion of these books in “From History to Homonyms,” with president Kathy Short, Huck Award committee chair Barbara Kiefer, and Orbis Pictus Award committee chair Cyndi Giorgis.
This year’s Charlotte Huck Honorable Mention books are:
- Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff (Philomel);
- The Crossover by Kwame Alexander (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt);
- El Deafo by Cece Bell (Harry N. Abrams);
- The Farmer and the Clown by Marla Frazee (Beach Lane); and
- Revolution by Deborah Wiles (Scholastic).
The Charlotte Huck Recommended books are:
- A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd (Scholastic);
- Draw by Raul Colon (Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books);
- The Madman of Piney Woods by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic);
- The Meaning of Maggie by Megan Jean Sovern (Chronicle Books);
- The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires (Kids Can Press);
- Otis and the Scarecrow by Loren Long (Penguin Group);
- The Secret Hum of a Daisy by Tracy Holczer (Putnam); and
- The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye (Greenwillow Books).
This year’s Orbis Pictus Honorable Mention books are:
- A Home for Mr. Emerson by Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham (Scholastic);
- Mr. Ferris and His Wheel by Kathryn Gibbs Davis, illustrated by Gilbert Ford (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt);
- The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers);
- Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh (Abrams Books for Young Readers);and
- Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos by Stephanie Roth Sisson (Roaring Brook Press).
The Orbis Pictus Recommended books are:
- Eye to Eye: How Animals See the World by Steve Jenkins (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt);
- Chasing Cheetahs: The Race to Save Africa’s Fastest Cats by Sy Montgomery, photographs by Nic Bishop (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt);
- The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement by Teri Kanefield (Abrams Books for Young Readers);
- Little Melba and Her Big Trombone by Katheryn Russell-Brown, illustrated by Frank Morrison (Lee & Low Books);
- Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting with the Great Whites of California’s Farallon Islands by Katherine Roy (David Macaulay Studio/Roaring Brook Press);
- The Scraps Book: Notes from a Colorful Life by Lois Ehlert (Beach Lane);
- The Streak: How Joe DiMaggio Became America’s Hero by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Terry Widener (Calkins Creek);and
- Strike!: The Farm Workers’ Fight for Their Rights by Larry Dane Brimner (Calkins Creek).
The winning titles, authors, and illustrators will be honored during the 2015 NCTE Annual Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the Children’s Book Award Luncheon on Saturday, November 21.
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