The NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children promotes and recognizes excellence in the writing of nonfiction for children. See a complete list of past Orbis Pictus Award winners.
| Subject | Author | Title | Call number | Year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | Collard, Sneed B. | Border Crossings | 599.752 C697bo | 2023 | |
| Honor | Charles, Tami | Ketanji Brown Jackson: A Justice for All | 92 J133ch | ||
| Havrelock, Deidre | Indigenous Ingenuity: A Celebration of Traditional North American Knowledge | 500.89 H3885in | |||
| Larson, Kirsten W. | The Fire of Stars: The Life and Brilliance of the Woman Who Discovered What Stars Are Made Of | 92 P3463La | |||
| Tonatiuh, Duncan | Game of Freedom: Mestre Bimba and the Art of Capoeira | 92 B611to | |||
| Winner | Brew-Hammond, Nana Ekua | Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky | 535.6 B847bl | 2022 | |
| Honor | Joy, Angela | Choosing Brave: How Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till Sparked the Civil... | 92 T5743jo | ||
| Partridge, Elizabeth | Seen and Unseen: What Toyo Miyatake, Dorothea Lange, and Ansel Adams' Photographs Reveal about the Japanese American Incarceration | 940.5317 P275se | |||
| Bowen, Fred | Hardcourt: Stories from 75 Years of the National Basketball Association | 796.32364 B7854ha | |||
| Chambers, Veronica | Call and Response: The Story of Black Lives Matter | 323.1196073 C4455ca | |||
| Cocca-Leffler, Maryann | Fighting for YES! The Story of Disability Rights Activist Judith Heumann | 92 H593co | |||
| Menendez, Juliet | Latinitas: Celebrating 40 Big Dreamers | 920.7208968 M542La | |||
| Peot, Margaret | The Science of Light: Things That Shine, Flash, and Glow | 535 P419sc | |||
| Scott, Joyce | Unbound: The Life and Art of Judith Scott | 92 S427sc | |||
| Sheinkin, Steve | Fallout: Spies, Superbombs and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown | 972.91064 S543fa | |||
| Sorell, Traci | Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer | 92 R825so / ebook | |||
| Winner | Todd, Traci N. | Nina: A Story of Nina Simone | 92 S598to | 2021 | |
| Honor | Buhrman-Deever, Susannah | If You Take Away the Otter | 599.7695 B931if | ||
| Dionne, Evette | Lifting as We Climb: Black Women's Battle for the Ballot Box | 324.6230 D592Li | |||
| Soontornvat, Christina | All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescues of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team | 796.5250 S711al | |||
| Winner | Byant, Jen | Above the Rim: How Elgin Baylor Changed Basketball | 796.323092 B358ab | 2020 | |
| Wittenstein, Barry | A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation | 323.092 W829pl | |||
| Honor | Denise, Anika | Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpre | 92 B4523de | ||
| Fleming, Candace | Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera | 595.799 F597ho | |||
| Jarrow, Gail | The Poison Eaters | 353.997 J37po | |||
| Sandler, Martin W. | 1919: The Year That Changed America | 973.91 S217ni | |||
| Thermes, Jennifer | Manhattan: Mapping the Story of An Island | 974.71 T411ma | |||
| Wallace, Sandra Neil | The Teachers March | 323.1196 W194te | |||
| Winner | Wallace, Sandra Niel | Between the Lines | 92 B261wa | 2019 | |
| Honor | Nobleman, Marc Tyler | Thirty Minutes Over Oregon: A Japanese Pilot’s World War II Story | 92 F9615no | ||
| Rosenstock, Barb | The Secret Kingdom: Nek Chand, a Changing India, and a Hidden World of Art | 92 C454ro | |||
| Sorrell, Traci | We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga | 497.55711 S713we | |||
| Stone, Tanya Lee | Pass Go and Collect $200 | 794 S881pa | |||
| Tonatiuh, Duncan | Soldier for Equality: Jose de la Luz and the Great War | 92 S1275to | |||
| Walker, Sally | Champion: The Comeback Tale of the American Chestnut Tree | 583.46 W184ch | |||
| Winner | Chin, Jason | Grand Canyon | 557.9132 C539gr | 2018 | |
| Honor | Barton, Chris | Dazzle Ships | 940.45941 B293da | ||
| Harris, Shawn | Her Right Foot | 974.71 E29he | |||
| Martin, Jacqueline Briggs | Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix | 92 C545ma | |||
| Rubin, Susan Goldman | The Quilts of Gee's Bend | 746.4609761 R896qu | |||
| Winter, Jeanette | The World is Not a Rectangle | 92 H129wi | |||
| Winner | Sweet, Melissa | Some Writer!: The Story of E.B. White | 92 W5833sw | 2017 | |
| Honor | Delacre, Lulu | Olinguito, de la A a la Z | 468.6421 D332ol | ||
| Fleming, Candace | Giant Squid | 594.58 F597gi | |||
| Goodman, Susan E. | The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial | 92 R647go | |||
| Jenkins, Steve | Animals by the Numbers: A Book of Infographics | 590.728 J52an | |||
| Levy, Debbie | I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Made Her Mark | 92 G493Le | |||
| Winner | Brown, Don | Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans | 363.3492 B877dr | 2016 | |
| Honor | Bartoletti, Susan | Terrible Typhoid Mary: A True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America | 92 T991ba | ||
| Rockliff, Mara | Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled all of France | 507.2 R683me | |||
| Tavares, Matt | Growing up Pedro | 92 M3854ta | |||
| Tonatiuh, Duncan | Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras | 92 T663to | |||
| Winner | Fleming, Candace | The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, & the Fall of Imperial Russia | 947.083 F597fa | 2015 | |
| Honor | Bryant, Jennifer | The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus | 92 R732br | ||
| Davis, Kathryn | Mr. Ferris and His Wheel | 791.068 D262mr | |||
| Kerley, Barbara | A Home for Mr. Emerson | 92 E53ke | |||
| Sisson, Stephanie | Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos | 92 S129si | |||
| Tonatiuh, Duncan | Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family's Fight for Desegregation | 379.263 T663se | |||
| Honor | Floca, Brian | Locomotive | 385.0973 F628Lo | 2014 | |
| Heiligman, Deborah | The Boy Who Loved Math | 92 E66he | |||
| Roth, Susan | Parrots over Puerto Rico | 598.71 R845pa | |||
| Stone, Tanya Lee | Courage Has No Color | 940.541273 S881co | |||
| Winner | Shubert, Leda | Monsieur Marceau | 92 M313sc | 2013 | |
| Honor | Burns, Loree | Citizen Scientists: Be a Part of Scientific Discovery from your own Backyard | 590.723 B967ci | ||
| Byrd, Robert | Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin | 92 F831by | |||
| Kerley, Barbara | Those Rebels: John and Tom | 973.44092 K39th | |||
| Levinson, Cynthia | We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March | 323.1196 L6655we | |||
| Rusch, Elizabeth | The Mighty Mars Rover: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity | 523.43 R951mi | |||
| Stone, Tanya Lee | Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles, America's First Black Paratroopers | 940.541273 S881co | |||
| Winner | Sweet, Melissa | Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade | 92 S2449sw | 2012 | |
| Honor | Brown, Monica | Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People | 92 N454br | ||
| Fleming, Candace | Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart | 92 E12fl | |||
| Holzer, Harold | Father Abraham: Lincoln and His Sons | 973.70922 H762fa | |||
| Roth, Susan | The Mangrove Tree | 577.698 R845ma | |||
| Winner | Greenberg, Jan | Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring | 792.8092 G798ba | 2011 | |
| Honor | Aronson, Mark | If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge | 936.2319 A769if | ||
| Bardoe, Cheryl | Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age | 569.67 B247ma | |||
| Brimner, Larry | Birmingham Sunday | 323.1196 B8575bi | |||
| Johnson, Rebecca | Journey into the Deep: Discovering New Ocean Creatures | 591.77 J68jo | |||
| Thomson, Ruth | Terezin: Voices from the Holocaust | 940.5318 T484te | |||
| Tunnell, Michael O. | Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift's "Chocolate Pilot" | 92 H197tu | |||
| Winner | Bass, Hester | The Secret World of Walter Anderson | 92 S552ba | 2010 | |
| Honor | Markle, Sandra | How Many Baby Pandas? | 599.789 M346ho | ||
| McGlinty, Alice B. | Darwin: With Glimpses into His Private Journal and Letters | 92 D228mc | |||
| Shea, Pegi Deitz | Noah Webster: Weaver of Words | 92 W382sh | |||
| Turner, Pamela | The Frog Scientist | 597.89 T951fr | |||
| Winner | Tanaka, Shelley | Amelia Earhart: The Legend of the Lost Aviator | 92 E12ta | 2009 | |
| Honor | Bolden, Tonya | George Washington Carver | 92 C331boL | ||
| Fleming, Candace | The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary | 92 L7365fL | |||
| Freedman, Russell | Washington at Valley Forge | 973.3341 F853wa | |||
| Nelson, Kadir | We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball | 796.357 N427we | |||
| Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw | When the Wolves Returned: Restoring Nature's Balance in Yellowstone | 599.773 P295wh | |||
| Winner | Bolden, Tonya | M.L.K. Journey of a King | 92 K53bo | 2008 | |
| Honor | Bausum, Ann | Muckrakers | |||
| Bishop, Nic | Spiders | 595.44 B622sp | |||
| Fleischman, John | Black and White Airman: Their True History | 940.5449 F596bL | |||
| Singer, Marilyn | Venom | 595.165 S617ve | |||
| Sullivan, George | Helen Keller: Her Life in Pictures | 92 K29su | |||
| Winner | Montgomery, Sy | Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea | 599.22 M788qu | 2007 | |
| Honor | Bardoe, Cheryl | Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas | 92 M5368ba | ||
| Freedman, Russell | Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott | 323.1196 F8534fr | |||
| Killough, Carla | Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium | 92 C975mc | |||
| Lasky, Kathryn | John Muir: America’s First Environmentalist | 92 M953La | |||
| Thimmesh, Catherine | Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 | 629.454 T443te | |||
| Winner | Freedman, Russell | Children of the Great Depression | 305.230973 F853ch | 2006 | |
| Honor | Bartoletti, Susan Campbell | Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow | 943.086 B292hi | ||
| Delano, Marfe Ferguson | Genius: A Photobiography of Albert Einstein | 92 E35de | |||
| Jackson, Donna | ER Vets: Life in an Animal Emergency Room | 636.089 J125er | |||
| Jurmain, Suzanne | Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and Her Students | 92 C8898ju | |||
| Siy, Alexandra | Mosquito Bite | 595.772 S625mo |