2022 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction

The 2022 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction went to Justina Ireland for Ophie's Ghosts, published by Balzer + Bray. The novel opens in 1922, when twelve-year-old Ophie first sees a ghost: her father's spirit, warning her to leave Georgia after he has been killed by white men. She and her mother move to Pittsburgh and go to work as maids at Daffodil Manor, where Ophie discovers that some members of the household are ghosts who carry pieces of the house's and the country's painful past. The book blends history with a ghost story and mystery. As in every year of the award, a single winner was chosen and no honor books were named. The winning author receives $5,000.