2017 Sequoyah Book Awards Competition

2017 Sequoyah Book Awards Competition

Believe it or not, this Oklahoma Library Association reading competition is in its 59th year! The Sequoyah Book Awards program is the third-oldest youth-choice literary award in the nation.

Sequoyah encourages Oklahoma students to read books of literary quality. OLA’s Sequoyah Reading Teams release masterlists of titles for each annual round. Then classrooms and libraries across the state are encouraged to promote the program with their young readers. Here’s how it works:

• 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 in grades 6-8 who have read or listened to at least three titles from the Intermediate Masterlist are eligible to vote for the Intermediate Sequoyah Book Award.
• Students in grades 9-12 who have read or listened to at least three titles from the High School Masterlist are eligible to vote for the High School Sequoyah Book Award.

Voting happens from February 1 to March 15 in classrooms and libraries throughout Oklahoma—and online. (We’ll let you know when voting opens!) The winning titles are announced in April.

For the past five years, the Oklahoma Department of Libraries has partnered with OLA and other sponsors to provide Sequoyah posters and lessons through The Oklahoman’s Newspapers in Education (NIE) service. The Sequoyah Book Award week promotion begins early in the school year each fall.

From 2012 to 2016, more than 2,100 individual classrooms and school libraries around the state signed up with NIE to receive the posters and lesson plans. More than 55,000 posters have been distributed to schools and public libraries for posting and for sharing with individual students. ODL also provides bookmarks for each masterlist, and this year we also gave away reading logs, reading certificates, and “I voted” stickers.

Check out the two-sided poster and lessons for the 2016-2017 Sequoyah promotion.

OK, young people, get readin’! We can’t wait to find out what books win this time around!

Original Article can be found at the Oklahoma Department of Libraries Website, at the link provided HERE.