2005 Winner

Caroline Arnold, the distinguished author and illustrator of 130 books for children, will receive the Washington Post-Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award on Saturday, November 12, 2005. The award will be presented at the annual Children's Book Week Luncheon, to be held at the Capital Hilton Hotel, 1001 16th St. N.W. (Farragut North Metro), Washington, DC, at noon.

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The award is presented annually to "an author or illustrator whose total body of work has contributed significantly to the quality of nonfiction for children." The winner is selected by a committee of the Children's Book Guild of Washington, D.C., a professional organization of authors, illustrators and children's literature specialists.

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Arnold's longstanding love of animals and outdoor life has inspired such books as Birds: Nature's Magnificent Flying Machines and Pterosaurs: Rulers of the Skies in the Dinosaur Age. She also writes about sports and geography, and even about ancient cultures, as in her books on Easter Island and Australian aborigines.

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Illustrator Brian Selznick and author Donna Jo Napoli are also featured speakers for the event. Selznick received a Caldecott Honor for illustrating The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins, by Barbara Kerley, and Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award Honors for When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, and Walt Whitman: Words for America, by Barbara Kerley. Napoli writes historical fiction, fantasy and contemporary fiction for preschoolers through young adults. Her retellings of classic fairy tales from different points of view have gained her a wide young adult following. Her newly released novel Bound retells the Chinese version of Cinderella; The King of Mulberry Street, another new novel, grew out of her grandfather's immigrant experience. A picture book by Napoli, Pink Magic, is being published in fall 2005.