Orbis Pictus Award

Spiders by Nic Bishop

2008 Orbis Pictus Honor Book

Bishop, N. (2007). Spiders. New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc.

Little Miss Muffet, here's your new black book! No longer do you have to be scared, for you know the types, habitats and mannerisms of SPIDERS! Next time, sit and chat with that icky, spiky 8 legged insect. Determine if he's a she! Or whether instead of scaring you, that a wolf spider was a mother that wanted the leaf stuck to the bottom of your dress to feed the baby sack she carried on her back. Bishop has gathered a most invasive and detailed depiction of children's most feared little creature. The ease of using this in a science class is obvious. But I would love to use this in a creative writing class. The students could create dating-profiles for each of the spiders mentioned and then try to match mates. Overall the illustrations (pictures) freaked me out. I had to close my eyes and have my 10 year old read this book to me, so I can fulfill this requirement. EWW! YELCH! AAHHH! And, nightmares to come.

When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson by Pam Muñoz Ryan and illustrated by Brian Selznick

2003 Orbis Pictus Award Winner

Ryan, P. (2002) When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson. New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc.

One of the greatest gifts of life is love. Love in all it's grandeur and genre is amazing. Yet, a close second place to almost everyone is music. Whether blaring out of an IPOD or floating through the air before Lincoln's Washington monument, music is beautiful, angelical and healing to briefly sum it up. And, when fortune has smiled upon you, as it did Marian Anderson, you can change the world. Ryan and Selznick collaborated to create a vibrantly beautiful book about majesty of Marian Anderson and her phenomenal voice. With such pride and poise, Anderson stood before her nation, that shunned and revered her, and bellowed out via broadcast and bottomless might. Facing a 1939 crowd of 75,000 participants, she closed her eyes to the rejection of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and Mrs. Elenaor Roosevelt's morning resignation, and sang "America." Nobody knew the trouble she saw as a 12 year old girl, losing her father. The world heard a earth-dwelling songbird, resting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, before she returned to heaven at a later call. Selznick captures the mahogany richness of her skin and the heavenly spotlight that beamed upon her as she sang for the Metropolitan Opera. The consistent use of honeyed and marbled shades of brown, melting the racially dividing lines of injustice, like treasured chocolate of the finest creation, focuses the reader on her racial plight without flagrantly assaulting the audience. In the words of Interior Secretary, Harold L. Ickes, who introduced Marian Anderson as she stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, "Genius draws no color line." Marian, through the blessing of music, erased the fault line in America. *Use this picture book in music class, during the social study of prejudice or in a character building class over perseverance.

Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II by Penny Colman

1996 Honor Book

Colman, P. (1995). Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II. New York, NY: Crown Publishers, Inc.

American women won equality regarding the right to vote in 1920. Hard fought and well deserved, women equaled men in voting power. Yet, when the male-dominance vacated the country to fight in World War II, women jumped into action, running households, rationing goods and drilling the rivets needed on the planes their husbands, brothers and sons flew overseas. An authentic depiction of the 1940s and the struggles of women, Colman captures the strength of those women who had to work for "three months, ten hours a day, six days a week and slap three-eighth or three-quarter inch rivets by hand that no one else would do (Colman, 84)." These domesticated dollies turned battered and bruised pioneers took the helm and kept America's factories smoking. The authentic photographs of lipsticked welders, smiling like beacons of light on a European battle shore, made the text genuine. Three and a half million women answered the call to arms in the mid 1940s. Whether women wore pink dress or had their hair tied up in a handkerchief, ready for their drill, women put to rest their ability to stand in support and toe-to-toes with their men. Use this immediately after a classic fairy-tale, where the princess awaits rescue. Then ask the students, "What would Rosie do?" This selection should definitely find usage with an older, high school, audience as it deals with sensitive topics such as sexual discrimination.