Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction

Presentation By:

Heidi Ross, Allie Davis, Lisa Davis, and Shawna Tracy

for Historical FictionThe Scott O’Dell Award

• Founded in 1982 by Scott O’Dell and Zena Sutherland

• Awarded annually to a distinguished piece of historical fiction for children or young adults written in the previous year

• Aimed at encouraging emerging authors to focus on historical fiction

www.scottodell.com

Nomination Requirements

Nominated books must be…

The Scott O’Dell Award

• Published by a U.S. publisher• Aimed at children or young adults• Written in English• Set in South, Central, or North America• Authored by a U.S. citizen

www.scottodell.com

Who is Scott O’Dell?

About Scott O’ Dell 0 Scott O’Dell was born “O’Dell Gabriel Scott”

0 He was born May 23, 1898 on Terminal Island in Los Angeles California.

0 Mothers name: Mary Elizabeth Scott 0 Father Name: Ben Mason Scott

0 Scott O’Dell spent most of his life in California near the ocean.

0 Scott O’Dell was always fascinated by the sea.

0 Throughout his life he would go out on sea voyages with family and friends visiting majestic places that made him feel apart of the “great outdoors”

0 Scott O’Dell attended four total Universities including, Occidental College in 1919, The University of Wisconsin Madison in 1920, Sanford University from 1920-1921, University of Rome in 1925.

0 At the age of 20 O’Dell joined the U.S air force during WWII.

Before he was a Great Author0 O’Dell worked in Hollywood California as a trained cameraman, a

technical direction, as a book columnist for Los Angeles “Spirit”, and a book editor for the “Los Angeles Daily News”

0 During this time a typesetter misspelled his name. O’Dell liked it so much he legally changed his name from “O’Dell Gabriel Scott” to just “Scott O’Dell”.

0 He than began to write non fiction books for adults.

As a Great Author:

0 His first published non-fiction book was in 1934 “Women of Spain”

0 Then came his second novel “Hill of the Hawk” which was published in 1947.

0 Scott O’Dell had a passion for writing stories of the past. He was known as being a writer of historical fiction.

0 Around 1950’s O’Dell began to write children’s books. His first book and best known was called “Island of the Blue Dolphins” The book went on to win a Newberry medal in 1961.

One of the first Scott O’Dell award winners was Charley Skedaddle by Patricia Beatty. In this book twelve year old Charley is living his life by running around with the notoriously gang-like Bowery Boys. Charley decides to leave his life of crime so he can follow in his deceased older brother’s shoes. He joins the 104th regiment as a drummer during the Civil War. Charley ends up fleeing from his group when he shoots a rebel soldier. Charley eventually reaches the Blue Ridge Mountains where he meets a mountain woman, Granny Bent.

The most recent Scott O’Dell winner (2016) is The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz. This book follows fourteen year old Joan Skraggs, a working farm girl from Pennsylvania. Although she is able to escape her work by reading about exciting adventures in her novels, she strives for an exciting life of her own. She decides to take a risk and seek paying work in Baltimore. This book is in her perspective, as it is written in a journal-like style. It is set in 1911 and discusses many historical aspects like religious faith from that time period, love, working conditions and expectations.

This link will take you to a list of books that have won the Scott O’Dell award, and the time period in which they were written. The site this was found created this list so teachers have an easy key on how to use these books in their classrooms. It makes it easy to decide which books will fit into multiple units. Although teachers should take into consideration these are chapter books, not picture books. These will likely be most beneficial in an older classroom setting. Enjoy!

http://www.scottodell.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Historical%20Period%20Books%

20Revised%202012.pdf