Bessie the Motorcycle Queen, by Charles R. Smith, Jr., illustrated by Charlot Kristensen. Orchard Books.
Septima Clark Book Awards
Septima Clark Book Awards
Apply to the Award Selection Subcommittee
How to submit a Septima Clark Book Award Nomination.
The Septima Clark Book Award is presented to exemplary books written for children and young people each year at the NCSS Annual Conference. Authors are recognized at the NCSS Annual Conference, which is attended by over 4,000 K-12 and university level educators and other social studies professionals who enjoy interacting with the Septima Clark Award-winning authors and will be interested in obtaining copies of books for use with their students. Award-winning authors will be presented with a commemorative gift at the NCSS Meet-the-Author Panel Session. A book signing will follow.
Copies of the award-winning and honor books will be requested from publishers for purchase at a discounted price in order to feature those books for sale at the Annual Conference NCSS Bookstore. The award-winning books will also be reviewed in the NCSS journal Social Education in the year following the recognition.In addition, a medallion for these books was introduced in 2019. Each year, three books, one elementary (K-6), one middle (5-8) and one secondary (7-12), will receive the Septima Clark Book Award and three outstanding runner-up books will be designated as Septima Clark Honor Books. Award winning books and honor books are publicized as the recipients of this distinguished NCSS recognition.
2020 Awards
Elementary Level Honorees
Instructions not Included: How a Team of Women Coded the Future
by Tami Lewis Brown, illustrated by Chelsea Beck
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Girls with Guts! The Road to Breaking Barriers and Bashing Records
by Debbie Gonzales, illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon
Charlesbridge Publishing
