Annal:1985 Golden Kite Nonfiction Award

Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun

Rhoda Blumberg

• 1985 Golden Kite-nonfiction winner
• 1985 Horn Book-nonfiction winner
• 1986 Newbery honor
• Score: 26.35

In 1853, few Japanese people knew that a country called America even existed.

For centuries, Japan had isolated itself from the outside world by refusing to trade with other countries and even refusing to help shipwrecked sailors, foreign or Japanese. The country’s people still lived under a feudal system like that of Europe in the Middle Ages. But everything began to change when American Commodore Perry and his troops sailed to the Land of the Rising Sun, bringing with them new science and technology, and a new way of life.

The Mount Rushmore Story

Judith St. George

• 1985 Golden Kite-nonfiction honor
• Score: 6.35

A biography of the sculptor who devoted the last fourteen years of his life to the carving of the four presidents' heads on the face of Mount Rushmore.