James Madison Book Award

I.  Background to the Award.

The James Madison Book Award ("JMBA") is presented annually by the James Madison Book Award Council to "the book that best represents excellence in bringing knowledge and understanding of American history to children in elementary and middle school" (JMBA, Homepage).  In order to qualify for the award in a particular year, a book must be about American history, written for children in elementary or middle school grades, and be published in the preceding year.  The award winner recieves a cash prize of $10,000.00.  In addition to the award, honor books are named each year.  The first award was presented in 2003.  The award is named after James Madison, the 4th president of the United States of America.  Among other things, President Madison was a lawyer, a member of the Continental Congress, a participant in the ratification process for the United States Constitution, the writer of a nuimber of the Federalist Papers, and one of the primary movers in the framing of the Bill of Rights.  On the left is a portrait of President Madison (from the White House website).  President Madison lived most of his life within six or seven hundred miles from where he was born, in Virginia.  It was with the help of books that he was able to learn about far away times and places and help change the course of his country.  Below is a list, by year, of the winners of the James Madison Book Award and those books that were named honor books.    

II.  Award Winners and Honor Recipients.

   2007

• Award:
  • A Dangerous Engine: Benjamin Franklin, from Scientist to Diplomat, written by Joan Dash and illustrated by Dušan Petričić (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005).

• Honors:
  • Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, written by Russell Freedman (Holiday House, 2006).
  • Saving the Buffalo, written by Albert Marrin (Scholastic Nonfiction, 2006).

   2006

• Award:
  • Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl, written by Tonya Bolden (Harry N. Abrams, 2005).

• Honors:
  • Built to Last: Building America’s Amazing Bridges, Dams, Tunnels, and Skyscrapers, written by George Sullivan (Scholastic Nonfiction, 2005).
  • The Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and Her Students, written by Suzanne Jurmain (Houghton Mifflin, 2005).
  • Photo By Brady: A Picture of the Civil War, written by Jennifer Armstrong (Atheneum, 2005).

   2005

• Award:
  • Old Hickory: Andrew Jackson and the American People, written by Albert Marrin (Dutton Juvenile, 2004).

• Honors:
  • George Washington, Spymaster: How the Americans Outspied the British and Won the Revolutionary War, written by Thomas B. Allen (National Geographic, 2004).
  • The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights, written by Russell Freedman (Clarion Books, 2004).

   2004

• Award:
  • An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793, written by Jim Murphy (Clarion Books, 2003).

• Honors:
  • Ben Franklin’s Almanac: Being a True Account of the Good Gentleman’s Life, written by Candace Fleming (Atheneum, 2003).
  • Duel of the Ironclads: The Monitor vs. the Virginia, written and illustrated by Patrick O’Brien (Walker & Company, 2003).
  • Mack Made Movies, written and illustrated by Don Brown (Roaring Brook Press, 2003).
  • Shutting Out the Sky: Life in the Tenements of New York 1880–1924, written by Deborah Hopkinson (Scholastic, Inc., 2003).

   2003

• Award:
  • First to Fly: How Wilbur and Orville Wright Invented the Airplane, written by Peter Busby and illustrated by David Craig (Crown Books, 2002).

• Honors:
  • Inventing the Future: A Photobiography of Thomas Alva Edison, written by Marfé Ferguson Delano (National Geographic Society, 2002).
  • Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science, written by John Fleischman (Houghton Mifflin, 2002).

  • When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson, written by Pam Muñoz Ryan and illustrated by Brian Selznick (Scholastic Press, 2002).

(List adapted from JMBA, 2007 Award Winner).

III.  Resources.

James Madison Book Award.  (n.d.).  About the Award.  Retrieved on April 7, 2008 from:

http://www.jamesmadisonbookaward.org/about.html

James Madison Book Award.  (n.d.).  Homepage.  Retrieved on April 7, 2008 from:

http://www.jamesmadisonbookaward.org/index.html

James Madison Book Award.  (n.d.).  James Madison Book Award Winner, 2007.  Retrieved on April 7, 2008 from:

http://www.jamesmadisonbookaward.org/winners2007.html

University of Virginia.  (2008).  James Madison (1751-1836).  Retrieved on April 7, 2008 from:

http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/madison

White House.  (n.d.).  James Madison.  Retrieved on April 7, 2008 from:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jm4.html