2009 National Outdoor Book Award Winners Announced

A new groundbreaking biography on Theodore Roosevelt is the winner of the history-biography category in this year's National Outdoor Book Awards (NOBA).

Titled "Wilderness Warrior," the book is by historian Douglas Brinkley. 

"No doubt about this one," said Ron Watters, Chairman of the National Outdoor Books Awards and professor emeritus at Idaho State University. "It's a winner.  Not only is Brinkley's book well written and impeccably researched, it sheds new information on Roosevelt's work to protect our nation's outdoor heritage."

"Wilderness Warrior" is one of several winners in the 2009 National Outdoor Book Awards.

The winners of this annual award program represent some of the finest outdoor writing and artwork being published today.  The awards program is sponsored by the National Outdoor Book Awards Foundation, Idaho State University and the Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education.

Awards are given in ten individual categories.

"The list of this year's winners is as varied as it is impressive," Watters said.  "Brinkley's serious and rigorous historical work is balanced by a light and humorous book on climbing Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks."

The Colorado book is called "Halfway to Heaven" and received top honors in the Literature Category. It is about author Mark Obmascik's dream to climb Colorado's highest peaks. 

While most people take years to reach all 54 summits, Obmascik decides to climb all of them in one summer.  Obmascik, however, has a problem.  He is overweight and utterly out of shape.  Nonetheless, he heads out on a rollicking, non-stop adventure with an all-star cast of eccentrics and fanatics. 

The most adventurous story among this year's NOBA winners is "Rowboat in a Hurricane" by Canadian author Julie Angus.  In this riveting, true life adventure, Angus and her fiancée set out on a 6,000 mile journey to row across the Atlantic.  It is the same year as Hurricane Katrina and the Atlantic is seething with tropical storms.  Their path takes them directly into the storms' midst.

"This one will keep you on the edge of your seat," said Watters.  "It's truly a book that you won't be able to put down."

Bird watchers will find much to savor among this year winners.  A stunning collection of bird paintings by the master artist and ornithologist Lars Jonsson won the Design and Artistic Merit Category.  "Lars Jonsson's Birds" includes sketches, watercolors, oil paintings, lithograph, and commentary by the artist.

A new edition of Roger Tory Peterson's classic field guide, the "Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America" won the Nature Guidebook Category.  The book conveniently combines his eastern and western guidebooks into one volume.

And finally little bird lovers, particularly those between the ages of 5 and 9, will enjoy the winner of the Children's Category "Whistling Wings."  It's a sweet bedtime story about Marcel, a young tundra swan who is flying south for the winter.

Complete reviews of these and the other 2009 winners may be found at the National Outdoor Book Award Web site at:  www.noba-web.org.

Here is a list of winners. 

• History/Biography.  Winner.  Wilderness Warrior:  Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America.  By Douglas Brinkley.  Harper, New York.  ISBN 9780060565282

• Outdoor Literature Category.  Winner.  Halfway to Heaven.  By Mark Obmascik.  Free Press / Simon & Schuster, New York.  ISBN  9781416566991

• Outdoor Literature Category.  Honorable Mention.  Rowboat in a Hurricane: My Amazing Journey Across a Changing Ocean.  By Julie Angus.  Greystone Books, Vancouver.  ISBN 9781553653370

• Design & Artistic Merit Category.  Winner.  Lars Jonsson's Birds.  Illustrations by Lars Jonsson.  Princeton University Press, Princeton.  ISBN 9780691141510

• Classic Award.  Winner.  Kayak: The New Frontier.  By William Nealy.  Menasha Ridge Press, Birmingham.  ISBN 9780897325899

• Classic Award.  Honorable Mention.  Appalachian Odyssey: Walking the Trail from Georgia to Maine.  By Steve Sherman and Julia Older.  Author's Guild, New York.  ISBN 9781440115301

• Nature and the Environment Category.  Winner.  Our Living Earth.  By Yann Arthus-Bertrand.  Abrams/Books for Young Readers, New York.  ISBN 9780810971325

* Nature and the Environment Category.  Honorable Mention.  Sand: Tthe Never Ending Story. By Michael Welland.  University of California Press.  Berkeley.  ISBN 9780520254374

• Natural History Literature.  Winner.  Every Living Thing:  Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalog Life, from Nanobacteria to New Monkeys.  By Rob Dunn.  Smithsonian Books.  New York.  ISBN 9780061430305

• Children's Category.  Winner.  Whistling Wings.  By Laura Goering.  Illustrated by Laura Jacques.  Sylvan Dell Publishing, Mt Pleasant, SC.  ISBN 9781934359303

• Children's Category.  Honorable Mention.  Operation Redwood.  By S. Terrell French. Abrams/Amulet Books, New York.  ISBN 9780810983540

• Instructional Category.  Girl on the Rocks:  A Woman's Guide to Climbing with Strength, Grace and Courage.  By Katie Brown.  Photos by Ben Moon.  Globe Pequot Press/Falcon Guides, Guilford, CN.  ISBN 9780762745180

• Outdoor Adventure Guidebooks.  Winner.  Guide to the Green and Yampa Rivers in Dinosaur National Monument.  By Duwain Whitis and Barbara Vinson.  RiverMaps, Buda, TX.  ISBN 9870981935913

• Outdoor Adventure Guidebooks.  Honorable Mention.  The Guide to Baja Sea Kayaking. By Dave Eckardt.  Paddle Publishing, Eagle, CO.  ISBN 97809645839914

• Nature Guidebook.  Winner.  Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America.  By Roger Tory Peterson.  Houghton Mifflin Company.  Boston.  ISBN 9780618966141

• Nature Guidebooks.  Honorable Mention.  Dragonflies and Damselflies of the West.  By Dennis Paulson.  Princeton University Press.  Princeton.  ISBN 9780691122816.

 NOTE:  Color scans (print quality), complete reviews, and other supplementary art work may be downloaded from: http://www.noba-web.org/bookrel09.htm

2009 National Outdoor Book Awards:  Home Towns of the Authors

Wilderness Warrior:  Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America.  By Douglas Brinkley.  Austin, TX.

Halfway to Heaven.  By Mark Obmascik.  Denver, CO

Rowboat in a Hurricane: My Amazing Journey Across a Changing Ocean.  By Julie Angus.  Comox, BC Canada  (I believe it's near Vancouver.)

Lars Jonsson's Birds.  Illustrations by Lars Jonsson.  Burqsvik, Sweden.

Kayak: The New Frontier.  William Nealy.  Deceased.  The publisher (Menasha Ridge Press is from Birmingham, AL)

Appalachian Odyssey: Walking the Trail from Georgia to Maine.  By Steve Sherman and Julia Older.  Hancock, NH.

Our Living Earth.  By Yann Arthus-Bertrand.  France.

Sand: Tthe Never Ending Story. By Michael Welland.  London, England.

Every Living Thing:  Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalog Life, from Nanobacteria to New Monkeys.  By Rob Dunn.  Raleigh, NC

Whistling Wings.  By Laura Goering.  Northfield, MN 

Operation Redwood.  By S. Terrell French.  San Francisco, CA

Girl on the Rocks:  A Woman's Guide to Climbing with Strength, Grace and Courage.  By Katie Brown.  San Francisco, CA

Guide to the Green and Yampa Rivers in Dinosaur National Monument.  By Duwain Whitis and Barbara Vinson.  Buda, TX

The Guide to Baja Sea Kayaking. By Dave Eckardt.  Eagle, CO

Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America.  By Roger Tory Peterson.  Deceased.

Dragonflies and Damselflies of the West.  By Dennis Paulson.  Seattle, WA