2023 Orbis Pictus Award

The 2023 Orbis Pictus Award, the National Council of Teachers of English honor for outstanding nonfiction for children, went to Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, illustrated by Daniel Minter. The five honor books were Choosing Brave by Angela Joy, illustrated by Janelle Washington, about Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till; Fighting for Yes! by Maryann Cocca-Leffler, about disability rights activist Judith Heumann; Hardcourt by Fred Bowen, illustrated by James E. Ransome, which gathers stories from 75 years of the National Basketball Association; Seen and Unseen by Elizabeth Partridge, illustrated by Lauren Tamaki, on how three photographers recorded the Japanese American incarceration; and The Science of Light by Margaret Peot.