2019 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction

The 2019 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction went to Lesa Cline-Ransome for Finding Langston, published by Holiday House. Set in 1946, the novel follows eleven-year-old Langston, who moves with his father from rural Alabama to Chicago after his mother's death. Lonely in the city and bullied at school, he finds a refuge in the public library, where he discovers the poetry of Langston Hughes, the writer he was named for. The story is part of the larger account of the Great Migration of Black families from the South to Northern cities. The committee chose a single winner, as it does every year, and the author received the $5,000 prize.