Authors with common sense keep their thoughts to themselves about the prizes given to children’s books. But I have always refused to be silenced when it comes to opinions about awards, and age does not seem to be bestowing upon me the gift of going gently into the good night.

This week I get to do something quite extraordinary. I’ll be in Cleveland, Ohio, to receive the Norman A. Sugarman Award, given for a new biography for children, in this case Untamed: The Wild Life of Jane Goodall. Sponsored by the Joan G. Sugarman family, and administered by the Cleveland Public Library, the award bestows a cash stipend and stands as one of the few prizes earmarked for writers of nonfiction.

In the 1970s Milton Meltzer wrote a ground-breaking article for Horn Book, “Where Do All the Prizes Go?” In it he bemoaned the dearth of attention for writers of nonfiction. Editor of the Horn Book Paul Heins found Milton’s arguments so convincing that he added a nonfiction category to the Boston Globe Horn Book Awards. Others followed, including the Washington D. C. Children’s Book Guild, ALSC with the Siebert Award, and YALSA with the Nonfiction Award. All of these prizes have been welcome additions to the landscape.

But, unfortunately, Milton’s arguments remain largely true. Any guesses about the last time a work of narrative nonfiction won the Newbery? As editor of the Horn Book I cheered the selection of Russell Freedman’s Lincoln: A Photobiography in 1988. But thirty years seems a very long time to overlook the contributions of nonfiction writers. Recent reading research indicates that around 50% of our children prefer to pick up information books – they want to know about things that really happened. With writers like Steve Sheinkin and Candace Fleming creating fabulous books year after year – not to mention a host of other unsung authors – it seems a shame that the top writing prize, and so many other awards, overlook their accomplishments.

I am grateful that the Sugarman Award exists and that I will be able to express my thanks in Cleveland. Awards make a profound impact on authors– encouraging us to keep going, making us believe that the kinds of books we love, and write, have value. I just hope that sometime in the not-so-distant future I can stand and applaud when the Newbery or another major prize goes to a fellow nonfiction writer. We need these true stories about our world, ones that inspire and educate our children.