Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan have just been named the 2013 winners of the Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award. They write about art and dance and their subjects include Van Gogh, Jackson Pollock, Christo and Jeanne-Claude. (Their books are gorgeous!)

As a new member of the Children's Book Guild I was asked to write an article on the previous winners of this award. I thought I might have a hard time tracking down the various authors, but the internet made that surprisingly easy—and the winners all graciously agreed to be interviewed. I had amazing conversations with many of them and received (beautifully written) emails from others.

I talked to people who write about science and the natural world—something I've never done. Sy Montgomery, Larry Pringle, Dorothy Patent, Caroline Arnold, and Sneed Collard told me about what it was like to visit places few people go and meet animals most of us have only seen in photos. They've gone diving in deep-sea submersibles, swum with pink dolphins, and been surrounded by orangutans and whooping cranes.

I learned a bit about what it was like to be both a writer and an illustrator talking to Peter Sis who creates books that reveal personal stories and others that tell about people who dare to do the unexpected, George Ancona who uses his camera to open children's eyes to new worlds, and Steve Jenkins who cuts out pieces of paper to tell stories. (Well, he does a little more than that. Check out this video: http://www.stevejenkinsbooks.com/makingbooks.html)

There were also emails and conversations with Susan Bartoletti, Kathleen Krull, Diane Stanley, and Doreen Rappaport—writers who, like me, love history. They research extensively—climbing down into a coalmine, visiting Leonardo's birthplace, and interviewing Holocaust survivors. And they also spend a lot of time in libraries before they begin to write what Kathleen Krull calls "prose that flows."

This article was written for writers and illustrators of the Guild, but it may also be of interest to anyone who loves children's books:
http://www.childrensbookguild.org/nonfiction-award/g-a-retrospective-on-...
[photo of Laurence Pringle, 1999 winner of the Nonfiction Award, author of ICE! The Amazing History of the Ice Business]