I am currently reading Into the Land of the Unicorns for an outside reading, and it reminded me of a children's book list that I was very familiar with when growing up. I am from Oklahoma, and the Sequoyah book awards was an important children's literature competition for school children. During my fifth grade year, we were given an incentive to read the books on the list, and were taken on a special trip if we read 20 out of 22 of the books. I read 20 books and voted on my favorite, but the winner for that year was, of course, one of the two books I did not read.

I have found the website detailing the past winners, the past contenders, and the history of the award. The website for the Official site of the Oklahoma Sequohya Book Awards is http://www.oklibs.org/sequoyah/

I was able to find the list of books that I read when I was in 5th grade by going to the master lists and finding the list of books for the 1996-1997 year. I also learned that the award is the third oldest children's choice award in the nation.

Another interesting side note is that the very first Sequoyah winner was Old Yeller written by Fred Gipson. This book has a special connection to my life, but I will save that story for another post.

I highly recommend checking out the Sequoyah website to learn more about the award, and to see what books have been on the lists.