What Is the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award?

Question: What Is the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award?

Answer: With support from Bound to Stay Bound Books, Inc., the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), established the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award in 2001. The annual award was named in honor of the long-term president of Bound to Stay Bound Books, Inc. The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award is one of a number of children's book awards administered by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC).

According to ALSC,

“The Sibert Award honors the most distinguished informational book published in English in the preceding year for its significant contribution to children’s literature. The award is presented to the author, author/illustrator, co-authors, or author and illustrator named on the title page of that book. Honor Books may be named with recognition again going to the author, author/illustrator, co-authors, or author and illustrator named on the title page of that book.”

ALSC defines informational books as “those written and illustrated to present, organize, and interpret documentable, factual material.” In order to qualify for the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award, the authors, author/illustrator, co-authors, or author and illustrator named on the title page must be citizens or residents of the United States, and the book must be an original work that was first published in the U.S. ALSC stresses, “The award is not presented for didactic intent or for popularity.”

The 2009 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award Winner

Kadir Nelson, the author and illustrator of We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, is the winner of the 2009 Robert F. Sibert Medal for the most distinguished informational book for children published in 2008. According to the ALA media release,

"Kadir Nelson scores a home run with this fascinating and well-documented history of Negro League Baseball told in the voice of an 'everyman' narrator. Dignified, riveting full-page illustrations capture the spirit of these larger-than-life men who loved the game, despite the prejudice they faced.

'Kadir Nelson’s eight years of research score a grand slam in his rookie writing effort,' said Sibert Committee Chair Carol Phillips. 'This history of the Negro League entices fans and non-fans alike. His stunning oil paintings, based on archival photographs, illustrate grace, pride and discipline far beyond what words alone might convey.'”

The book also was honored in two categories of the Coretta Scott King Awards and is on my personal list of the Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2008. The publisher is Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, an imprint of Disney Book Group. (Compare prices.)

The 2009 Sibert Honor Books

Note: The quotations in this section come from the media release mentioned above.

• Bodies From the Ice: Melting Glaciers and Rediscovery of the Past was written by James M. Deem and published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. "Bodies From the Ice explores the archaeology of glacier science. Deem’s visual presentation engages readers through period newspaper illustrations, paintings, maps and photographs of ice mummies and artifacts from four continents. Twisted bleached bones, sacrificial victims and legendary climbers are the pinnacle of this en'GROSS'ing account." (Compare prices.)
• What to Do About Alice?: How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy!was written by Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham and published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc. "Growing up as the daughter of the President was not easy, but being the President and father of Alice Roosevelt was not easy either. Barbara Kerley’s playful use of language and Fotheringham’s rollicking illustrations converge to introduce energy and outrageousness in What to Do About Alice?" (Compare prices.)

Past winners include:

The 2008 Medal Winner:

The Wall: Growing Up behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sís (Farrar/Frances Foster) (Compare prices)

The 2008 Honor Books:

Lightship, written and illustrated by Brian Floca (Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson) (Compare prices)

Nic Bishop Spiders, written and photographed by Nic Bishop (Scholastic Nonfiction, an imprint of Scholastic) (Compare prices.)