The Sequoyah Book Award is a set of three annual awards for books selected by vote of Oklahoma students in elementary, middle, and high schools. The award program is named after Sequoyah (–1843), the Cherokee man who developed the Cherokee syllabary—a writing system adopted by Cherokee Nation in 1825. The awards are sponsored by the Oklahoma Library Association and administered by a committee of OLA members. Every year, three teams representing each award read and select books to be included on the master lists, which are then provided to Oklahoma schools for students to read and vote on. The winners are announced early spring of each year, and the winning authors are invited to the Association's annual conference to receive their awards and meet with students. The Sequoyah Children's Book Award, now voted by children in grades 3 to 5, was inaugurated in 1959. It is the third oldest U.S. state children's choice award after the original Kansas award and Vermont award. The Sequoyah Intermediate Book Award is voted by grades 6 to 8. It dates from 1988 where it was originally named the Young Adult award. Finally in 2010, the Sequoyah High School Book Award (grades 9–12) was added to the program.
The Sequoyah Committee also selects the Donna Norvell Award; The Donna Norvell Book Award was established in 2005 by the Oklahoma Library Association and is given annually, with the first award given in 2006. The Donna Norvell Book Award honors a book that has made a significant contribution to the field of literature for children through second grade. Until 2020, this award was a librarian's choice award and selected by librarians who were members of the Oklahoma Library Association's Sequoyah Book Award Committee. It is now a children's choice award for students in grades 2 and under, with the Children's Sequoyah Committee selecting the award nominees. The award is named for Donna Norvell, Children's Consultant for the Oklahoma Department of Libraries from 1992 to 2004, who died in 2004. The award honors Donna's contributions to the development of the library profession in Oklahoma.
Children's winners
Year Title Author1959 Old Yeller Fred Gipson1960 Black Gold Marguerite Henry1961 Have Space Suit—Will Travel Robert A. Heinlein1962 The Helen Keller Story Catherine O. Peare1963 Mystery of the Haunted Pool Phyllis Whitney1964 Where the Panther Screams William Powell Robinson1965 A Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L'Engle1966 Rascal Sterling North1967 Harriet the Spy Louise Fitzhugh1968 Gentle Ben Walt Morey1969 Blackbeard's Ghost Ben Stahl1970 Mustang Marguerite Henry1971 Ramona the Pest Beverly Cleary1972 Man in the Box Mary Lois Dunn1973 The Trumpet of the Swan E. B. White1974 Flight of the White Wolf Mel Ellis1975 Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing Judy Blume1976 How to Eat Fried Worms Thomas Rockwell1977 The Toothpaste Millionaire Jean Merrill1978 Shoeshine Girl Clyde Robert Bulla1979 Summer of the Monkeys Wilson Rawls1980 Kid Power Susan B. Pfeffer1981 Get-Away Car Eleanor Clymer1982 Bunnicula James Howe1983 A Dog Called Kitty Bill Wallace1984 The Cybil War Betsy Byars1985 Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub Jamie Gilson1986 Dear Mr. Henshaw Beverly ClearyJust Tell Me When We're Dead Eth Clifford1987 Night of the Twisters Ivy Ruckman1988 Christina's Ghost Betty Ren Wright1989 The Sixth Grade Sleepover Eve Bunting1990 Fudge Charlotte Graeber1991 Beauty Bill Wallace1992 The Doll in the Garden Mary Downing Hahn1993 Weasel Cynthia DeFelice1994 Shiloh Phyllis Reynolds Naylor1995 Horror at the Haunted House Peg Kehret1996 The Ghosts of Mercy Manor Betty Ren Wright1997 Nasty, Stinky Sneakers Eve Bunting1998 Titanic Crossing Barbara Williams1999 101 Ways to Bug Your Parents Lee Wardlaw2000 The Million Dollar Shot Dan Gutman2001 Holes Louis Sachar2002 Dork in Disguise Carol Gorman2003 Because of Winn-Dixie Kate DiCamillo2004 Skeleton Man Joseph Bruchac2005 The Stranger Next Door Peg Kehret2006 The Tale of Despereaux Kate DiCamillo2007 The World According to Humphrey Betty Birney2008 Angus and Sadie Cynthia Voigt2009 Clementine Sara Pennypacker2010 Lawn Boy Gary Paulsen2011 All the Lovely Bad Ones Mary Downing Hahn2012 Dragonbreath Ursula Vernon2013 The Strange Case of Origami Yoda Tom Angleberger2014 Sidekicks Dan Santat2015 The One and Only Ivan Katherine Applegate2016 Chews Your Destiny: The Gumazing Gum Girl! Rhode Montijo2017 The Doll Graveyard Lois Ruby2018 Roller Girl Victoria Jamieson2019 A Dog Like Daisy Kristin O’Donnell Tubb2020 Lifeboat 12 Susan Hood2021 Stargazing Jen Wang2022 Zeus, Dog of Chaos Kristin O’Donnell Tubb2023 Stella McCall Hoyle2024 Cookies and Milk Shawn Amos2025 Dogtown Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko
Young Adult and Intermediate winners
Year Title Author1988 Abby My Love Hadley Irwin1989 The Other Side of Dark Joan Lowery Nixon1990 Hatchet Gary Paulsen1991 A Sudden Silence Eve Bunting1992 Appointment with a Stranger Jean Thesman1993 The Silver Kiss Annette Curtis Klause1994 What Daddy Did Neal Shusterman1995 Flight 116 Is Down Caroline B. Cooney1996 The Giver Lois Lowry1997 Walk Two Moons Sharon Creech1998 Running Out of Time Margaret Peterson Haddix1999 Danger Zone David Klass2000 I Have Lived a Thousand Years Livia Bitton-Jackson2001 Holes Louis Sachar2002 Speak Laurie Halse Anderson2003 Define Normal Julie Ann Peters2004 Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Ann Brashares2005 The House of the Scorpion Nancy Farmer2006 Eragon Christopher Paolini2007 Red Kayak Priscilla Cummings2008 The Lightning Thief Rick Riordan2009 Runaway Wendelin Van Draanen2010 Unwind Neal Shusterman2011 The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins 2012 Positively Courtney Sheinmel2013 After Ever After Jordan Sonnenblick2014 Michael Vey: Prisoner of Cell 25 Richard Paul Evans2015 The False Prince Jennifer A. Nielsen2016 Goodbye, Rebel Blue Shelley Coriell2017 The Crossover Kwame Alexander2018 The War that Saved My Life Kimberly Brubaker Bradley2019 Refugee Alan Gratz2020 Front Desk Kelly Yang2021 Allies Alan Gratz2022 When Stars Are Scattered Victoria Jamieson & Omar Mohamed2023 Ground Zero Alan Gratz2024 Hummingbird Natalie Lloyd 2025 The Lost Year Katherine Marsh Parachute Kids Betty C. Tang
High School winners
Year Title Author2010 Thirteen Reasons Why Jay Asher2011 The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins 2012 Hate List Jennifer Brown2013 Clockwork Angel Cassandra Clare2014 Divergent Veronica Roth2015 The Fault in Our Stars John Green2016 The 5th Wave Rick Yancey2017 Wolf by Wolf Ryan Graudin2018 The Female of the Species Mindy McGinnis2019 The Hate U Give Angie Thomas2020 Dry Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman2021 The Patron Saints of Nothing Randy Ribay2022 Legendborn Tracy Deonn2023 Six Crimson Cranes Elizabeth Lim2024 Message Note Found Dante Medema2025 Rez Ball Byron Graves
Donna Norvell Award winners
The Norvell Award "honors a book making a significant contribution to the field of literature for children through third grade ... written and illustrated to present, organize, and interpret material for children." The writer and illustrator must be US residents, the book published two years before the award year (2012 publications in 2014). Librarians on the Sequoyah Committee select the winner.
Year Title Writer Illustrator 2006 Wild About Books Judy Sierra Marc Brown2007 Leaf Man Lois Ehlert Ehlert2008 Not a Box Antoinette Portis Portis2009 Fred Stays with Me! Nancy Coffelt Tricia Tusa 2010 Maybe a Bear Ate It! Robie Harris Michael Emberley 2011 Chicken Dance Tammi Sauer Dan Santat 2012 Interrupting Chicken David Ezra Stein Stein2013 Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes (sequel to Pete the Cat) Eric Litwin James Dean 2017 Red, a Crayon's Story Michael Hall2018 The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors Drew Daywalt Adam Rex2019 Can I Be Your Dog? Troy Cummings2020 Nobody Hugs a Cactus Carter Goodrich2021 Memoirs of a Tortoise Devin Scillian Tim Bowers2022 The Worrysaurus Rachel Bright Chris Chatterton2023 Summertime Sleepers Melissa Stewart2024 Feathers Together Caron Levis Charles Santoso2025 Stickler Loves the World Lane Smith
The official award webpage identifies only the title and writer.
References "Sequoyah Book Awards" (homepage). Oklahoma Library Association (OLA). Retrieved 2014-05-05. "The Donna Norvell Oklahoma Book Award" . OLA. Retrieved 2014-05-05.
External links "Children's Sequoyah Winners". OLA. "YA Sequoyah Winners (1988–2009)". OLA. "Intermediate Sequoyah Winners (2010–)". OLA. "High School Sequoyah Winners (2010–)". OLA. "Donna Norvell Oklahoma Book Award Winners". OLA. Official website