Robert F. Sibert Honor

Award Year

Robert F. Sibert Honor

2008

Floca, Brian. (2007). Lightship. New York, N.Y. : Atheneum Books for Young Readers. 387.2 F628L

Lightships once served where lighthouses could not be built. They helped to guide sailors safely

2008

Bishop, Nic. (2007). Spiders. New York : Scholastic Nonfiction. 595.4 B622s 

Text and photographs introduce readers to different types of spiders and their behavior.

2007

Bausum, Ann. (2006). Freedom Riders : John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the front lines of the civil rights movement. (Forewords by Freedom Riders Congressman John Lewis and Jim Zwerg). Washington, D.C. : National Geographic. 323.09 B351f

Explores the Civil Rights movement and the young people who called themselves Freedom Riders.

2007

Montgomery, Sy. (2006). Quest for the tree kangaroo : an expedition to the cloud forest of New Guinea. (Photographs by Nic Bishop). Boston : Houghton Mifflin. 599.2 M788q

Follow a group of explorers and scientists as they travel to Papua New Guinea to find a type of kangaroo that lives in trees.

2007

Siegel, Siena Cherson. (2006). To dance : a memoir. (Artwork by Mark Siegel). New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers. 792.8 S571t

The author describes how she first decided she wanted to be a ballerina at the age of six, and how that dream carried her from her home in Puerto Rico to dance class in Boston to performing with the New York City Ballet

2006

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. (2005). Hitler Youth : growing up in Hitler’s shadow. New York : Scholastic Nonfiction. 943.086 B292h

The story of a generation of German young people who devoted all their energy to the Hitler Youth and the propaganda that brought Hitler his power, and the youths that resisted the Nazi movement. "I begin with the young. We older ones are used up. But my magnificent youngsters! Look at these men and boys! What material! With them, I can create a new world."-Adolf Hitler, Nuremberg,1933. By the time Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, 3.5 million children belonged to the Hitler Youth. It would become the largest youth group in history. Susan Campbell Bartoletti explores how Hitler gained the loyalty, trust, and passion of so many of Germany’s young people. Her research includes telling interviews with surviving Hitler Youth members.

2005

Kerley, Barbara. (2004). Walt Whitman : words for America. (Illustrated by Brian Selznick). New York : Scholastic Press. 921 W6155k

A biography of the American poet whose compassion led him to nurse soldiers during the Civil War, to give voice to the nation's grief at Lincoln's assassination, and to capture the true American spirit in verse.

2005

Montgomery, Sy. (2004). The tarantula scientist. (Photographs by Nic Bishop). Boston : Houghton Mifflin Co. 595.4 M788t

Describes the research that Samuel Marshall and his students are doing on tarantulas, including the largest spider on earth, the Goliath bird eating tarantula. Yellow blood, silk of steel, skeletons on the outside! These amazing attributes don't belong to comic book characters or alien life forms, but to Earth's biggest and hairiest spiders: tarantulas. Here you are invited to follow Sam Marshall, spider scientist extraordinaire (he's never been bitten), as he explores the dense rainforest of French Guiana, knocking on the doors of tarantula burrows, trying to get a closer look at these incredible creatures. You'll also visit the largest comparative spider laboratory in America--where close to five hundred live tarantulas sit in towers of stacked shoe boxes and plastic containers, waiting for their turn to dazzle and astound the scientists who study them.

2005

Rumford, James. (2004). Sequoyah : the Cherokee man who gave his people writing. (Translated into Cherokee by Anna Sixkiller Huckaby). Boston : Houghton Mifflin Co. 921 S4799r

While walking through a forest of sequoias, a father tells his family the story of the tree's namesake. Sequoyah was a Cherokee man who invented a system of writing for his people. His neighbors feared the symbols he wrote and burned down his home. All of his work was lost, but, still determined, he tried another approach. The Cherokee people finally accepted the written language after Sequoyah taught his six-year-old daughter to read.

2004

Cobb, Vicki. (2003). I face the wind. (Illustrated by Julia Gorton). New York : HarperCollins. 551.51 C653i

Introduces the characteristics and actions of the wind through simple hands-on activities.

2003

Blumenthal, Karen. (2002). Six days in October : the stock market crash of 1929. New York, N.Y. : Atheneum Books for Young Readers. 332.64 B658s

A comprehensive review of the events, personalities, and mistakes behind the Stock Market Crash of 1929, featuring photographs, newspaper articles, and cartoons of the day.

2003

Gantos, Jack. (2002). Hole in my life. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux. PS3557.A5197 Z468 2002

The author relates how, as a young adult, he became a drug user and smuggler, was arrested, did time in prison, and eventually got out and went to college, all the while hoping to become a writer.

2003

Greenberg, Jan & Jordan, Sandra. (2002). Action Jackson. (Illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker). Brookfield, Conn. : Roaring Brook Press. 921 P776g

Imagines Jackson Pollock at work during the creation of one of his paint-swirled and splattered canvasses.

2003

Ryan, Pam Muñoz. (2002). When Marian sang : the true recital of Marian Anderson. (Illustrated by Brian Selznick). New York : Scholastic Press. 921 A5485r

An introduction to the life of Marian Anderson, extraordinary singer and civil rights activist, who was the first African American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera, whose life and career encouraged social change.

2002

Warren, Andrea. (2001). Surviving Hitler : a boy in the Nazi death camps. New York : HarperCollinsPublishers. 921 M271w

Fifteen-year-old Jack is torn from his family and thrown into a concentration camp where he must play a life-and-death game in order to outlast the Nazis.

2002

Greenberg, Jan & Jordan, Sandra. (2002, c2001). Vincent Van Gogh : portrait of an artist. New York : Dell Yearling. 921 G613g

Traces the life of 19-century Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh , with excerpts from correspondence with his brother Theo and full-color reproductions from his work.

2002

Curlee, Lynn. (2001). The Brooklyn Bridge. New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers. 624.5 C975b

Describes the planning, construction, and history of the Brooklyn Bridge, celebrated as one of the greatest landmarks and grandest sights of New York City.

2001

Dash, Joan. (2000). The longitude prize. (Pictures by Dušan Petricic). New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 681.1 D229L

The story of John Harrison, inventor of watches and clocks, who spent forty years working on a time-machine which could be used to accurately determine longitude at sea.

2001

Murphy, Jim. (2000). Blizzard! the storm that changed America. New York : Scholastic Press. 974.7 M978b

Presents a history, based on personal accounts and newspaper articles, of the massive snow storm that hit the Northeast in 1888, focusing on the events in New York City.

2001

Webb, Sophie. (2000). My season with penguins : an Antarctic journal. Boston : Houghton Mifflin. 598.47 W368m

Describes the author's two-month stay in Antarctica to study and draw penguins. Webb gives readers a vivid, frank, firsthand account of what it is like to spend a season in a land not yet affected by people yet populated for centuries by true dwellers of the Antarctic: the fearless, round-bellied, pink-footed, gliding, diving, utterly adept Adelie penguins.

2001

Winick, Judd. (2000). Pedro and me : friendship, loss, and what I learned. New York : Henry Holt. 921 Z25w

In graphic art format, describes the friendship between two roommates on the MTV show "Real World," one of whom died of AIDS.