Embedded Files
Amazing Tech Support from LPS
With this award, Oklahoma honors the Native American leader Sequoyah, for his unique achievement in creating the Cherokee syllabary. Sequoyah chose eighty-five symbols to represent all spoken sounds of the Cherokee language. In so doing, he created a way to preserve his people's language and culture.
Link to Sequoyah Book Award History & Information:
https://www.oklibs.org/page/sequoyah
Students may vote for the 2025 Sequoyah Books Award winner by reading or listening to three or more finalist selections.
To participate in the voting process, please see Ms. DuRant or Ms. Billings.
2025 OLA High School Sequoyah Masterlist
2025 OLA High School Sequoyah Masterlist
Bourne, Brianna. The Half-Life of Love. New York: Scholastic Press, 2023. 360 p. (Grades 9 and up). With only 41 days left in Flint Larsen’s short life, he is living as little as possible to make his approaching death easier; September Harrington is working to cure the half-life phenomenon that determines everyone’s deathday, but the clock is ticking as she and Flint start falling for each other.
Boulley, Angeline. Warrior Girl Unearthed. Henry Holt and Co., 2023. 400 p. (Grades 9-12). When a fender bender ruins Perry Firekeeper-Birch’s “Summer of Slack” she finds herself working at the tribal museum to pay for the repairs to her Jeep. Soon, her seemingly boring job entangles her in a mysterious web of stolen artifacts, murder plots, and missing Indigenous women.
Brooks, Nick. Promise Boys. New York: Henry Holt and Company(BYR), 2023. 304p (Grades 10-12). After Principal Moore is found dead in his office, JB, Ramon, and Trey form an alliance to clear their names.
Brunskill, Amelia. Wolfpack. New York: Little Brown Books. 2023. 272 p. (Grades 9-12). Violet, Ivy, Poppy, Willow, Daisy, Oleanna, Laurel, Fern, and Violet live together in a cult. One of the girls turns up missing. Told in alternating verse, a mystery unfolds.
Cline-Ransome, Lesa. For Lamb. New York: Holiday House, 2023. 304 p. (Grades 10 and up). An interracial friendship in the Jim Crow South sets off a chain of events that culminates in explosive and devastating trauma that will forever change the lives of Lamb Clark and her family. This novel, told through multiple narrators, is well-researched and heartbreaking, exposing a side of history that has been swept under the rug.
Graves, Byron. Rez Ball. New York: Heartdrum, 2023. 368 p. (Grades 10 and up). Tre Brun’s basketball dreams on Ojibwe Red Lake Nation Reservation are an attempt to live up to the legacy left by his brother Jaxon, who was killed in a car accident. Tre battles grief, racism, and the pressure of his brother’s shadow as he strives to become the first Division I athlete from his reservation.
Hicks, Faith Erin. Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy. New York: First Second, 2023. 304 p. (Grades 9 and up). Alix is the star of her high school hockey team, but that doesn’t keep her from being bullied by her team captain. After a locker-room confrontation turns physical, Alix witnesses Ezra’s calm takedown of his own bully–with words, not fists!–and enlists his help in learning to control her anger.
Hollowell, Sarah. What Stalks Among Us. New York: Clarion Books, 2023. 368 p.2025. When high school seniors and best friends Sadie and Logan decide to skip a field trip and find themselves in a creepy corn maze, they soon realize three things: 1) they’re trapped, 2) they’ve been in this maze before, and 3) they’ve died in it, a lot.
Kirby, Matthew J. Star Splitter. New York: Dutton Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, 2023. 305 p. (Grades 9-12). Seventeen-year-old Jessica Mathers wakes up on the surface of Carver 1061c, a post-extinction planet where she is supposed to meet her parents, who she hasn’t seen since she was six. But her lander is crashed, she’s the only one around, and there are fresh graves. Now she must figure out how she got here, where her parents are, and what steps she can take next to survive.
Lewis, Kayvion. Thieves’ Gambit. New York: Penguin, 2023. 384 p. (Grades 9-12). Seventeen year old Ross Quest comes from a long line of thieves. Will her training be enough to win the Gambit, a high stakes game and save her mother? Can she trust anyone in the game?
Mills, Emma. Something Close to Magic. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2023. 384 p. (Grades 9 and up). Seventeen-year-old baker's apprentice Aurelie is resigned to live a quiet, overworked life with her terrible boss at Basil's Bakery when a bounty hunter named Iliana recognizes Aurelie’s witchy abilities and enlists her help on a quest, complete with a hapless prince, ancient troll, royal plot, and plenty of danger and intrigue.
Shukairy, Ream. The Next New Syrian Girl. New York: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2023. 416 p. (Grades 9-12). Khadija prefers boxing and football to the lavish lifestyle heaped upon her by her traditional Syrian parents. Leene and her mother are newly arrived Syrian refugees trying to start their lives in America. When Leene and her mother move in with Khadija and her family, the girls must face difficult truths and end up on a journey that will test the limits of their strength.
Smith, Cynthia Leitich. Harvest House. Somerville: Candlewick Press, 2023. 308 p. (Grades 7-9). Truth blends with legend in this haunted house mystery as a group of teens work to uncover what is happening in their town during Halloween. Are Indigenous women being targeted? And who was the “Indian maiden” that everyone keeps talking about?
Sortino, Anna. Give Me a Sign. New York: Penguin Young Readers Group, 2023. 303 p. (Grades 7-10). Growing up mostly deaf in a hearing world is challenging enough, but2025HighSchoolSequoyahAnnotatedMasterlist when Lilah becomes a counselor at a summer camp for deaf kids, that she hasn’t been to since childhood, she faces all new challenges as she learns to communicate in a deaf world.
Stone, Nic. Chaos Theory. New York: Random House Children’s Books, 2023. 278 p. (Grades 10 & Up). Two teens, an anonymous text, a car wreck, a friendship contract. Some scars are more visible than others. Not all battles are physical, some of the worst ones are within our own minds.
Additional Information:
Additional Information:
Each masterlist is created to appeal to children in a variety of situations, interests and reading levels. The books on the masterlists are not intended to be an automatic recommendation of the books. Since selection policies vary, one should apply the specific guidelines to each title and purchase those titles that meet individual selection policies. The masterlists are not to be taken as recommendations that children be encouraged or required to read every title on a particular list. Teachers and other group leaders should carefully read and consider a title before reading a masterlist title to a class or group, or assigning a title as required reading. It is not the intention of the committees that every student must read every book on each masterlist.
Here's a link for more information: https://www.oklibs.org/page/sequoyah
Previous Winners
Previous Winners
2024: Message Not Found by Dante Medema
2023: Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
2022: Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
2021: Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay
2020: Dry by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
2019: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
2018: The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis
2017: Wolf by Ryan Graudin
2016: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
2015: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
2014: Divergent by Veronica Roth
2013: Clockwork Angel: The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare
2012: Hate List by Jennifer Brown
2011: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
2010: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Page updated
Report abuse