The Sequoyah Book Award program encourages the students of Oklahoma to read books of literary quality.

Children’s Sequoyah Award Nominees for 2024

Anybody Here Seen Frenchie? by Leslie Connor
Concrete: From the Ground Up by Larissa Thuele & Steve Light
Cookies and Milk by Shawn Amos
A Duet for Home by Karina Yan Glaser
Falling Short by Ernesto Cisneros
Going Places: Victor Hugo Green and His Glorious Book by Tanya Bolden and Eric Velasquez
High Score by Destiny Howell
The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat
**Lifeling by Kirsty Applebaum
Not Starring Zadie Louise by Joy McCullough
The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill
Seed by Caryl Lewis
The Pear Affair by Judith Eagle
Trex by Christyne Morrell
We are Wolves by Katrina Nannestad 

**Note: Lifeling was published in the UK under the title The Life and Time of Lonny Quicke. We will have one copy (paperback) and the Metropolitan Library also has this title in audio format to borrow.

Students in grades 3-5 who have read or listened to at least three titles from the Children’s Masterlist are eligible to vote for the Children’s Sequoyah Book Award.  Students who are eligible will vote in March and the winner will be announced in April.

2023 winning title: Stella by McCall Hoyle

2022 winning title: Zeus, Dog of Chaos by Kristin O’Donnell Tubb

2021 winning title: Stargazing by Jen Wang

2020 winning title: Lifeboat 12 by Susan Hood

2019 winning title:  Dog Like Daisy by Kristin O’Donnell Tubb

2018 winning title: Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson

2017 winning title: The Doll Graveyard by Lois Ruby

2016 winning title: Chews Your Destiny by Rhode Montijo

2015 winning title: The One and only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

2014 winning title: Sidekicks by Dan Santat

2013 winning title: The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger

The first Sequoyah Children’s Book Award was given in April 1959, making the award the third oldest children’s choice award in the nation.

The award is given annually as an event at the Oklahoma Library Association’s Annual Conference.

The Oklahoma Library Association honors Sequoyah for his unique achievement in creating the Cherokee syllabary, the 86 symbols representing the different sounds in the Cherokee language.

His statue is one of the two representing Oklahoma in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

The son of a Cherokee mother and a white trader father, Sequoyah, Cherokee for “Lame One,” was also known by his English name, George Guess

A cabin built by Sequoyah as part of a United States government grant still stands near Sallisaw.  This grant was the first given for literary achievement in the United States.