Voting Criteria
Students must read at least 3 titles from their list to vote for a winner.
- Donna Norvell award voting is for 2nd graders and younger.
- Sequoyah Children's award voting is for grades 3rd - 5th.
- Sequoyah Intermediate award voting is for grades 6th - 8th.
- Sequoyah High School award voting is for grades 9th - 12th.
About 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. This award was a librarian’s choice award and selected by the librarians who are members of the Oklahoma Library Association’s Sequoyah Book Award Committee until 2020 when it was changed to a children’s choice award for children’s grades 2 and under, with the Children’s Sequoyah Committee selecting the nominees.
The award is named for Donna Norvell, Children’s Consultant for the Oklahoma Department of Libraries from 1992-2004, who passed away in 2004. The award honors Donna’s contributions to the development of the library profession in Oklahoma.
About the Sequoyah Book Award
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.
In 1988, the first Sequoyah Young Adult Book Award was given. Twenty years later the YA book award was changed to “Intermediate Award” and a High School award was created and was first awarded in 2010.
Sequoyah Voting opens on Feb 1st of each year and closes on March 15th with the winner announced before March 30th. The awards are given annually, usually 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.