Annal:1998 Orbis Pictus Award

An Extraordinary Life: The Story of a Monarch Butterfly

Laurence Pringle

• 1998 Orbis Pictus winner
• Score: 10.48

Introduces the life cycle, feeding habits, migration, predators, and mating of the monarch butterfly through the observation of one particular monarch named Danaus.

A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder

Walter Wick

• 1997 Horn Book-nonfiction winner
• 1998 Orbis Pictus honor
• Score: 16.47

The most spectacular photographs ever created on the subject of water appear in this unique science book by Walter Wick. The camera stops the action and magnifies it so that all the amazing states of water can be observed—water as ice, rainbow, stream, frost, dew. Readers can examine a drop of water as it falls from a faucet, see a drop of water as it splashes on a hard surface, count the points of an actual snowflake, and contemplate how drops of water form clouds.

A Tree Is Growing

Arthur Dorros

• 1998 Orbis Pictus honor
• Score: 6.48

A picture book introduction to trees by the author of Rain Forest Secrets follows the growth of an oak tree over the course of a year. Tells about the structure of trees and how they grow, as well as their uses.

Charles A. Lindbergh: A Human Hero

James Cross Giblin

• 1998 Orbis Pictus honor
• Score: 6.48

Pilot Charles A. Lindbergh was one of the first Americans to be lionized by the news media. When Lindbergh made his nonstop transatlantic flight in 1927, radio and sound movies were just beginning to be popular, enabling people to learn of events almost as soon as they happened. Overnight, the 25-year-old Lindbergh, a man of modest means and education, was catapulted into the public limelight. He became the American hero whom everyone adored and thought could do no wrong.

Lindbergh’s popularity lasted little more than a decade. His ties to Nazi Germany and his outspoken isolationist views prior to World War II cost him the respect of many close friend and relatives, and of the general public as well. The story of Lindbergh’s rise to fame and abrupt descent into disgrace is told here with frankness and understanding. The meticulously researched text and generous selection of archival photographs present a lively and rounded portrait of a man who earned his place in aviation history despite his faults.

Digger: The Tragic Fate of the California Indians from the Missions to the Gold Rush

Jerry Stanley

• 1998 Orbis Pictus honor
• Score: 6.48

From the award-winning author of Children of the Dustbowl comes a sobering look at two of the most frequently romanticized events in American history. For the native peoples of California, the period from 1769, when the first Spanish Mission was founded, to the 1850s, when the Gold Rush was at its height, was one of terrible violence and destruction. First, Spanish priests and soldiers sought to convert the Indians to Christianity and a "civilized" way of life. Yet for the Indians the story of the missions was one of hunger, disease, rebellion, and death. Then, during the Gold Rush, Indians were frequently kidnapped, murdered, and sold into slavery by white settlers. By the end of the nineteenth century, the surviving California Indians had been forced onto reservations and their way of life had been largely destroyed. With maps, a timeline, and glossaries on California's Indian tribes and mission history, Jerry Stanley tells the story of modern California from the poignant perspective of the Native American.  

Kennedy Assassinated! The World Mourns: A Reporter's Story

Wilborn Hampton

• 1998 Orbis Pictus honor
• Score: 6.48

The astonishing story of a cub reporter who was there on the day that the President died.

On November 22, 1963, the phone rang in the Dallas U.P.I. office. Wilborn Hampton, a cub reporter, answered and heard these words: “Three shots fired!” It was the voice of the U.P.I. White House reporter. The gunshots had been fired at President Kennedy — and young Hampton was the first to receive the news. This is his story, a riveting account of a young man swept into the white-hot core of a tragedy that would shake the world. It is also a minute-by-minute chronicle of how reporters collected the facts of the major news story of the twentieth century. KENNEDY ASSASSINATED! will leave readers with an unforgettable sense of the shock, grief, and enduring loss that every American experienced that day.