Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal
The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal is awarded annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished informational book published in the United States in English during the preceding year. The award is named in honor of Robert F. Sibert, the long-time President of Bound to Stay Bound Books, Inc. of Jacksonville, Illinois.
2016 Winner and Honor Books:
Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras, written and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh
José Guadalupe Posada is the Mexican artist whose iconic Dia de Muertos illustrations are well known to children celebrating or learning about the holiday. Juxtaposing his own artwork with Posada’s art and life, Tonatiuh tells the story of a remarkable man and time in Mexican history.
Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans, written and illustrated by Don Brown
“A swirl of unremarkable wind leaves Africa…” and makes its way to what will become the drowned city of New Orleans. Simple black ink lines and dramatic watercolors pull readers into the deep water. Heroes surface, and people find courage, but much in this exceptional graphic novel is about incompetence, racism, and the resilience of the people of the Crescent City.
The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club by Phillip Hoose
Hoose presents the true World War II story of eight Danish teens who became resistance fighters while most of the adults in their country reacted passively to the Nazi takeover. He and Knud Pedersen, the original organizer of their Churchill Club, extensively conversed in person and via email; Hoose weaves Pedersen’s own words into an adventurous narrative about these young heroes.
Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March by Lynda Blackmon Lowery, as told to Elspeth Leacock and Susan Buckley
“By the time I was fifteen years old, I had been in jail nine times.” So begins Lowery’s highly personal account of the historic 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery. Revealing a dramatic story with diverse visual images, this heroic tale gives voice to activists participating in Civil Rights history.
Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford
This inspirational singer and Civil Rights activist comes to life in 22 brief, first person, free verse poems that seamlessly incorporate Hamer’s own words. This biography takes her from a sharecropping child to a community leader, and is richly illustrated with multimedia collages that perfectly evoke the emotions of each poem.
Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras, written and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh
José Guadalupe Posada is the Mexican artist whose iconic Dia de Muertos illustrations are well known to children celebrating or learning about the holiday. Juxtaposing his own artwork with Posada’s art and life, Tonatiuh tells the story of a remarkable man and time in Mexican history.
Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans, written and illustrated by Don Brown
“A swirl of unremarkable wind leaves Africa…” and makes its way to what will become the drowned city of New Orleans. Simple black ink lines and dramatic watercolors pull readers into the deep water. Heroes surface, and people find courage, but much in this exceptional graphic novel is about incompetence, racism, and the resilience of the people of the Crescent City.
The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club by Phillip Hoose
Hoose presents the true World War II story of eight Danish teens who became resistance fighters while most of the adults in their country reacted passively to the Nazi takeover. He and Knud Pedersen, the original organizer of their Churchill Club, extensively conversed in person and via email; Hoose weaves Pedersen’s own words into an adventurous narrative about these young heroes.
Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March by Lynda Blackmon Lowery, as told to Elspeth Leacock and Susan Buckley
“By the time I was fifteen years old, I had been in jail nine times.” So begins Lowery’s highly personal account of the historic 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery. Revealing a dramatic story with diverse visual images, this heroic tale gives voice to activists participating in Civil Rights history.
Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford
This inspirational singer and Civil Rights activist comes to life in 22 brief, first person, free verse poems that seamlessly incorporate Hamer’s own words. This biography takes her from a sharecropping child to a community leader, and is richly illustrated with multimedia collages that perfectly evoke the emotions of each poem.
2015 Winner and Honor Books:
The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jen Bryant Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, & the Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting with the Great Whites of California’s Farallon Islands by Katherine Roy Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh |
2014 Winner and Honor Books:
Parrots over Puerto Rico, written by Susan L. Roth and Cindy Trumbore A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin, written by Jen Bryant Look Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Backyard by Annette LeBlanc Cate Locomotive by Brian Floca The Mad Potter: George E. Ohr, Eccentric Genius by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan |