Sunday, May 26, 2013

2006 National Outdoor Book Award Winners

NOBA LogoThe National Outdoor Book Awards (NOBA) is the outdoor world's largest and most prestigious book award program. It is a non-profit, educational program, sponsored by the NOBA Foundation, Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education, and Idaho State University.

The purpose of the Awards is to recognize and encourage outstanding writing and publishing. Each fall in early November, the NOBA Foundation announces the winners of the nine categories making up the program, including History, Literature, Children, Nature, Instructional, Adventure Guidebook, Nature Guidebook, Design, and Outdoor Classic.

The program has very high standards of fairness and objectivity and has no connection whatsoever to any publisher or publishing business interest. The winners are chosen by a panel of judges consisting of educators, academics, book reviewers, authors, editors, and outdoor columnists from throughout the country.


History/Biography Category

Last Season

Winner. The Last Season. By Eric Blehm.
Harper Collins Publishers, New York. ISBN 0060583002

Randy Morgenson is an experienced backcountry ranger in Kings Canyon National Park of the California Sierras. He leaves on a routine patrol to an area, which after 28 seasons, he knows as well as anyone alive, but Morgenson never returns. An extensive air and ground search ensues. No sign of the ranger is found. Was it an accident? Was it foul play? Or was it all just a ruse? Could Morgenson still be alive? In this outstanding work of investigative journalism, author Eric Blehm pieces together a fascinating story of an individual comforted by his solitary time in the wilderness but who is increasingly troubled by life in civilization. Blehm spent eight years researching this book and it clearly shows. He sets the stage, draws you in, and slowly unravels the truth of this absorbing mystery of the Sierra mountains.

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Outdoor Literature Category

Being Caribou

Winner. Being Caribou. By Karsten Heuer.
The Mountaineers Books, Seattle. ISBN 1594850100

Karsten Heuer has just married and he has an idea for the perfect honeymoon: a five-month, thousand mile journey following the caribou migration from their winter range to their calving grounds in the Arctic and back again. No stranger to wilderness adventure herself, his wife and film maker, Leanne Allison readily agrees. Being Caribou is Karsten's sensitively done book of the couple's adventurous and inspiring journey. This a book full of heart and soul, capturing, like no other, the exquisite beauty and stark realities of that timeless and most celebrated of all mammal migrations.

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Natural History Literature

Condor

Winner. Condor: To the Brink and Back. By John Nielsen.
Harper Collins Publishers, New York. ISBN 0060088621

This book is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the efforts to save the condor, North America's largest flying land bird. Condor is a story waiting to be told, and there could have been no better person for the job than John Nielsen. Nielsen has penned a natural history book that is fun to read, mixing humor, science and human interest in just the right portions. In short, it's a brilliant telling of a compelling environmental saga.

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Nature & the Environment Category

Sea Turtles

Winner. Life in the Underground. By David Attenborough.
Princeton University Press, Princeton. ISBN 0691127034

Beautifully illustrated, this book takes the reader on a tour of the cloak-and-dagger underworld of creatures without backbones, the invertebrates. The tour guide is naturalist David Attenborough, prolific author and producer of popular nature documentaries for television. In Life in the Underground, Attenborough guides us past scampering scorpions, albino termites, sex-starved slugs, blood sucking ticks, and ravenous, lizard-eating spiders. Well, you get the picture. It's a scary world down there at our feet. But it's also a wondrous world, and the ever-curious Attenborough is clearly in his element telling us about it.

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Illustrated Atlas

Winner. Illustrated Atlas of the Himalaya By David Zurick and Julsun Pacheco.
University of Kentucky Press, Lexington ISBN 9780813123882

The Himalayas : the word itself can send our thoughts soaring to dizzy heights, and now there's a reference work worthy of the range's summits. The Illustrated Atlas is the first full-color comprehensive atlas to the entire 2,700 kilometer length of the Himalaya. It's attractively designed and includes 300 specially created maps, including maps of the range's national parks and preserves. The facts are there too, of course. Along with a wealth of photographs, the book includes textual information on the natural environment, conservation, resources, exploration, and culture and society.

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Carving Grand Canyon

Honorable Mention. Carving Grand Canyon : Evidence, Theories, and Mystery. By Wayne Ranney.
Grand Canyon History Association, Grand Canyon, AZ. ISBN 0938216821

How and when was the Grand Canyon formed? For nearly a century and a half, scientists have debated that question, but the answer remains elusive. They do, however, agree on one thing: the canyon was carved by the Colorado River. In this stylish, full-color book by the Grand Canyon History Association, Wayne Ranney describes and summarizes the various geological theories of the canyon's origins.

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Design & Artistic Merit

wings of Spring

Winner. Wings of Spring: Courtship, Nesting and Fledging. Photographs by Tom Vezo. Text by Chuck Hagner.
Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA. ISBN 9780811701419

Wings of Springs represents some of the finest photography of birds ever published: a Great Egret tossing a stream of brightly lit water droplets, a Wilson's Snipe standing on one leg forlorn in June snowfall, a Western Screech-Owl dangling a lizard from its beak. One is amazed at the days and countless hours photographer Tom Vezo spent patiently waiting for these moments that he has so elegantly captured. Complementing Vezo's photography is a comfortable and inviting design, and just the right amount of text to make the book useful as a bird guide as well as work of artistry.

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100 Caterpillars

Winner. 100 Caterpillars. By Jeffrey C. Miller, Daniel H. Janzen and Winifred Hallwachs.
The Belnap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 0674021908

This is an exquisite book portraying the caterpillars of Costa Rica in impressively sharp and brilliant color photographs. The lay-out and design is flawless. The accompanying text is complete and satisfying. The authors clearly want to share their discoveries and wonders of their work with everyone--not just with fellow biologists, but with all who are fascinated with the infinite variety of the natural world--and in that effort, they have succeeded beyond measure.

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Children's Category

Kelly of Hazel Ridge

Winner. Kelly of Hazel Ridge. Text by Robbyn Smith van Frankenhuysen. Illustrations by Gijsbert van Frankenhuysen.
Sleeping Bear Press, Chelsea, MI ISBN 1585362689

Kelly is in trouble. Her fourth grade teacher has asked her to write about something that's been important in her life. But she can't think of a thing until her father tells her to take a walk around their small farm. As she walks, she sees all the wild animals that share the farm, and she remembers helping her parents dig ponds, create wetland areas, and, oh yeah, plant a gazillion little trees! This book is a pure delight with a suffused gentle innocence, heartfelt text, and warm, luminous illustrations, all of which will surely excite young minds and imaginations. Ages 4-10.

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Leaf Man

Winner. Gaia Girls Enter the Earth. By Lee Welles.
Daisyworld Press, Corning, NY. ISBN 1933609001

In this 320-page novel, a young girl takes on a corporation that threatens to pollute the air and water of her upstate New York home. She is helped by a fantasy creature by the name of Gaia who she learns is the embodiment of the earth and of all living things. But can she, only a fourth grader (but soon to be a fifth grader!), stop a big corporation? Find out in Lee Welles' page-turner for young girls. Ages 9 to 14.

Order it now.

 

 


Instructional Category

Extreme Kids

Winner. Extreme Kids: How to connect with your children through today's extreme (and not so extreme) outdoor sports. By Scott Graham.
Wilderness Press, Berkeley. ISBN 0899973736

Healthy, adventurous outdoor activities are a great way to connect with your children. And here's a book to help you make that happen. Extreme Kids has the low-down on how parents and children can safely participate together in sports like rock climbing, surfing, canoeing, mountain biking, hiking, kayaking and many others.

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Outdoor Adventure Guidebook Category

Middle Fork

Winner. The Middle Fork of the Salmon River: A Comprehensive Guide. By Matt Leidecker.
Idaho River Publications, Hailey, ID. ISBN 1424302668

More than any, river guidebooks get used--and abused. All day, they are in and out of ammo cans, passed around, and used to keep track of mileage, to re-check routes through rapids, and to find the night's camp. They have to be tough, conveniently sized, able to withstand a soaking or two, have easy-to-read maps, and clear and concise descriptions. Matt Leidecker's Middle Fork guidebook fits the bill perfectly. If you have a trip planned on Idaho 's Middle Fork of the Salmon, this is the guide written and built for the job.

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Nature Guidebook Category

Yellowstone Expedition

Winner. Yellowstone Expedition Guide: The Modern Way to Explore America's Oldest National Park. By Charissa Reid.
TravelBrains, Inc., Bedford, NH. ISBN 1933763000

This is a state-of-the-art, technologically savvy guidebook for visitors of Yellowstone National Park . It's packed full of beta, including information on the area's geology, its hydrothermal features, plants, animals, and hiking trails. Topping it off are two included CD's: one is an audio tour which can be played as you visit different parts of the park, and the other contains movies and panoramic photo tours which can be viewed on your computer.

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Caterpillars

Winner. Caterpillars of Eastern North America. By David L. Wagner.
Princeton University Press, Princeton. ISBN 0691121443

It's a caterpillar lover's delight: a copiously illustrated guide to the caterpillars of nearly 700 butterflies and moths found east of the Mississippi. Many of the caterpillars included in the volume have never been photographed. The guide is nicely designed and easy to use with clear and crisp photographs of both the larva and adult stages.

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Classic Category

Sleeping Island

Honorable Mention. Sleeping Island: A Journey to the Edge of the Barrens. By P.G. Downes.
Heron Dance Press, New Ferrisburg, VT. ISBN 1933937033

Sleeping Island is the story of P.G. Downes' 1939 canoe expedition through unmapped country in the remote northern corner of Manitoba and Saskatchewan . His journey takes him to the edge of the Canadian Barrens, a desolate arctic wasteland known to the Indians as the "Land of Little Sticks." What helps elevate this book over many of the chronicles of early twentieth century canoe excursions is Downes' intimate knowledge of the trappers, traders, and especially the Indians who live off the land. This is what it was like on the cusp of change, just before the advance of civilization and titanic forces that would forever transform the face of Canada 's north country.

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