Author of Island of the Blue Dolphins
The Scott O'Dell Award
for Historical Fiction
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In 1982, Scott O'Dell established The Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. The annual award of $5,000 goes to a meritorious book published in the previous year for children or young adults. Scott O'Dell established this award to encourage other writers--particularly new authors--to focus on historical fiction. He hoped in this way to increase the interest of young readers in the historical background that has helped to shape their country and their world.
In 1981 and 1982, no books of sufficient merit were published, so no award was given in 1982 or 1983. Since 1984, the award has been presented each year. To be eligible for the award, a book must have been published as a book intended for children or young people, it must be set in the New World (Canada, Central or South America, or the United States), it must be published by a publisher in the United States, and it must be written in English by a citizen of the United States.
The Scott O'Dell Award Committee is now chaired by Hazel Rochman, Editor, YA Books, Booklist. She is assisted by Ann Carlson, Librarian, Oak Park and River Forest High School, and Roger Sutton, Editor-in-Chief, The Horn Book. Click here for details on submitting a book for next year's award (PDF file). |
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Each year the selection is made by the O'Dell Award Committee, which was headed
from its inception in 1982 until her death in 2002 by Zena Sutherland, Professor
Emeritus of Children's Literature at the University of Chicago. For many years,
Dr. Sutherland was author of Children and Books, the basic college text in
children's literature. The Zena Sutherland Lectures, a series of lectures in her
honor established in 1983, are given each year in Chicago under the direction of
the Chicago Public Library and the University of Chicago Lab School.
