Annal:2001 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Nonfiction

The Longitude Prize

Joan Dash, Dusan Petricic

• 2001 Horn Book-nonfiction winner
• 2001 Sibert honor
• Score: 16.51

By the start of the eighteenth century, many thousands of sailors had perished at sea because their captains had no way of knowing longitude, their east-west location. Latitude, the north-south position, was easy enough, but once out of sight of land not even the most experienced navigator had a sure method of fixing longitude. So the British Parliament offered a substantial monetary prize to whoever could invent a device to determine exact longitude at sea.

Many of the world’s greatest minds tried — and failed — to come up with a solution. Instead, it was a country clockmaker named John Harrison who would invent a clock that could survive wild seas and be used to calculate longitude accurately. But in an aristocratic society, the road to acceptance was not a smooth one, and even when Harrison produced not one but five elegant, seaworthy timekeepers, each an improvement on the one that preceded it, claiming the prize was another battle.

Set in an exciting historical framework — telling of shipwrecks and politics — this is the story of one man’s creative vision, his persistence against great odds, and his lifelong fight for recognition of a brilliant invention.

Rocks in His Head

Carol Otis Hurst, James Stevenson

• 2001 Horn Book-nonfiction honor
• Score: 6.51

Some people collect stamps. Other people collect coins. Carol Otis Hurst’s father collected rocks. Nobody ever thought his obsession would amount to anything. They said, “You’ve got rocks in your head” and “There’s no money in rocks.” But year after year he kept on collecting, trading, displaying, and labeling his rocks. The Depression forced the family to sell their gas station and their house, but his interest in rocks never wavered. And in the end the science museum he had visited so often realized that a person with rocks in his head was just what was needed.

Anyone who has ever felt a little out of step with the world will identify with this true story of a man who followed his heart and his passion.

Uncommon Traveler: Mary Kingsley in Africa

Don Brown

• 2001 Horn Book-nonfiction honor
• Score: 6.51

In 1870, an eight-year-old girl named Mary Kingsley lived in a small house on a lonely lane outside London, England. Her mother was bedridden and her father was rarely home. Mary did not go to school. She served as housekeeper, handyman, nursemaid, and servant, for years. In 1893 Mary traveled to West Africa and proceeded to embark on an astonishing journey of discovery. In her high-necked blouse, long skirt, and Victorian boots, she endured the brutal heat and hardships of Africa, and thrived. With luminous watercolors and a lively text, Don Brown tells the fascinating story of a most uncommon woman.