Annal:2001 Orbis Pictus Award

Hurry Freedom

Jerry Stanley

• 2001 Orbis Pictus winner
• 2000 NBA–Youth finalist
• Score: 16.51

Here for the first time in a book for young readers is the story of the African American forty-niners who went west to seek fortunes and freedom in the California Gold Rush.

Among the thousands drawn west by the California Gold Rush were many African Americans. Some were free men and women in search of opportunity; others were slaves brought from the slave states of the South. Some found freedom and wealth in the gold fields and growing cities of California, but all faced the deeply entrenched prejudices of the era.

To tell this story Hurry Freedom! focuses on the life of Mifflin Gibbs, who arrived in San Francisco in 1850 and established a successful boot and shoe business. But Gibbs’s story is more than one of business and personal success: With other African American San Franciscans, he led a campaign to obtain equal legal and civil rights for Blacks in California.

America's Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle

David A. Adler, Terry Widener

• 2001 Orbis Pictus honor
• Score: 6.51

Trudy Ederle loved to swim, and she was determined to be the best. At seventeen Trudy won three medals at the 1924 Olympics in Paris. But what she planned to do next had never been done by a woman: She would swim across the English Channel in fourteen hours and set a world record.

Michelangelo

Diane Stanley

• 2001 Orbis Pictus honor
• Score: 6.51

When he was born, Michelangelo Buonarroti was put into the care of a stonecutter's family. He often said it was from them that he got his love of sculpture. It certainly didn't come from his own father, a respectable magistrate who beat his son when he asked to become an artists apprentice.

But Michelangelo persevered. His early sculptures caught the attention of Florence's great ruler, Lorenzo de' Medici, who invited the boy to be educated with his own sons. Soon after, Michelangelo was astonishing people with the lifelike creations he wrested from marble — from the heartbreaking Pieta he sculpted when he was only twenty-five to the majestic David that brought him acclaim as the greatest sculptor in Italy.

Michelangelo had a turbulent, quarrelsome life. He was obsessed with perfection and felt that everyone — from family members to his demanding patrons — took advantage and let him down. His long and difficult association with Pope Julius II yielded his greatest masterpiece, the radiant paintings in the Sistine Chapel, and his most disastrous undertaking, the monumental tomb…

Osceola: Memories of a Sharecropper's Daughter

Alan Govenar, Shane W. Evans

• 2001 Orbis Pictus honor
• 2000 Horn Book-nonfiction honor
• Score: 12.51

A sharecropper’s daughter describes her childhood in Texas in the early years of the twentieth century.

The Amazing Life of Benjamin Franklin

James Cross Giblin

• 2001 Orbis Pictus honor
• Score: 6.51

Benjamin Franklin was one of seventeen children, and the youngest of 10 sons. To help out with the family, he was put to work when he was 10 years old in his father’s candle and soap-making shop. Ben hated making soap and candles. Since he was smart and a good speller and he loved to read, he later went to work in his brother’s print shop as an apprentice. He read book after book, and soon began to write himself. By 18, he moved to Philadelphia where he eventually opened his own print shop. By age 28 he published “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” a best seller in Colonial America.

Wild and Swampy

Jim Arnosky

• 2001 Orbis Pictus honor
• Score: 6.51

Are you ready to go to places that are dark and strange? Eager to see animals, including alligators, snakes, and unusual birds?

Jim Arnosky has created a picture-book excursion that gives you a feeling for the mystery of swamps. He also gives you tips about how to spot wildlife, and information about their habits.

Based on his acute powers of observation, the paintings, perhaps the best of his long career, are rich with mood. Ever searching for new ways to bring readers along on his adventures, Jim Arnosky has included wonderful pen-and-ink sketches that give additional visual information and feeling for the area.