The Orbis Pictus Award is the most prestigious award given to authors that successfully create a nonfiction book for children. The authors are celebrated with this award if their work meets a certain set of criterion – accuracy (of the person/event they focus on), style (interesting and stimulating writing), organization, design (attractive details), and usefulness in the classroom – and only one author is honored with the award each year. The book must be written with the purpose of sharing information in a way that children would find interesting, thus the criteria that it be in book format versus a textbook layout. Knowing the five criterions, I explored six Orbis Pictus Award winning books from past years and focused on the elements
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For easy reference, each part and the chapters within are located at the very front in the table of contents. Chapter 1 introduces us to the royal family – the Tsar and Empress, and their four daughters and one son. Not only does it have a chapter name to inform the readers of the information that will be presented, but it also includes the years that this took place – a great frame of reference for the reader. “Chapter 1: I Dreamed That I Was Loved – 1881-1895.” Right underneath the chapter heading is a sub-heading for the first several paragraphs, titled “The Boy Who Would be Tsar” (Fleming, 17); so now, the reader can assume that they will be introduced specifically to a boy, most likely the current Tsar’s son. Each page, packed full of interesting and accurate dialogue and historical information, is set up in that type of format. In Sylvia Vardell’s article addressing the criteria behind the Orbis Pictus award, the following is said about organization within a children’s nonfiction book: “[A good nonfiction book should have] titles that suggest themes and trends…a table of contents…and well planned” (Vardell, 476). Fleming’s ability to organize and sort the details of one of the most interesting families in history is wonderful and deserves the award it was
For easy reference, each part and the chapters within are located at the very front in the table of contents. Chapter 1 introduces us to the royal family – the Tsar and Empress, and their four daughters and one son. Not only does it have a chapter name to inform the readers of the information that will be presented, but it also includes the years that this took place – a great frame of reference for the reader. “Chapter 1: I Dreamed That I Was Loved – 1881-1895.” Right underneath the chapter heading is a sub-heading for the first several paragraphs, titled “The Boy Who Would be Tsar” (Fleming, 17); so now, the reader can assume that they will be introduced specifically to a boy, most likely the current Tsar’s son. Each page, packed full of interesting and accurate dialogue and historical information, is set up in that type of format. In Sylvia Vardell’s article addressing the criteria behind the Orbis Pictus award, the following is said about organization within a children’s nonfiction book: “[A good nonfiction book should have] titles that suggest themes and trends…a table of contents…and well planned” (Vardell, 476). Fleming’s ability to organize and sort the details of one of the most interesting families in history is wonderful and deserves the award it was