Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers' Literature

2023 Winner Steve Sheinkin

The Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers’ Literature gives formal recognition, on behalf of the Tulsa County community, to a nationally acclaimed author who has made a significant contribution to the field of literature for young adults. The award, presented by the Tulsa Library Trust, consists of a $10,000 cash prize and an engraved crystal book.

Through his fiction and nonfiction books, Steve Sheinkin makes complicated subjects clear and enticing to help children and teens get excited about both history and reading. His nonfiction young-adult books include Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team; Bomb: The Race to Build – and Steal – the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, a Newbery Honor Book and National Book Award finalist; The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism and Treachery, winner of the YALSA Award for Excellence, the Beacon Freedom Award and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award; Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown; Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War; The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights; and Lincoln's Grave Robbers. Children's nonfiction books by Sheinkin include Born To Fly: The First Women's Air Race Across America, King George: What Was His Problem? and Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil War. Children's fiction includes Neil Armstrong and Nat Love, Space Cowboys, Rabbi Harvey vs. the Wisdom Kid: A Graphic Novel of Dueling Jewish Folktales in the Wild West, The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey, Abraham Lincoln, Pro Wrestler and Abigail Adams, Pirate of the Caribbean.

More Information

Past Winners

About Anne V. Zarrow

Once upon a time, there lived a young girl named Broomstick Annie who wore bright-colored ribbons in her hair.

The story of Anne V. Zarrow’s life reads much like a children’s fairy tale. From the day she was born in 1915 to a poor immigrant family in Ohio and nicknamed “Broomstick Annie,” to her marriage to her beloved husband, Henry, Anne gave of herself. Whether it was hosting a local charity dinner or giving the coat off her back, Anne did so with sincerity and style.

As one of Tulsa’s most prominent business leaders, Henry Zarrow found it difficult to deny his wife her every good deed, especially when it came to books and children. Together they established an endowment in the Tulsa Library Trust to fund The Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers’ Literature. The award allows the library to bring to Tulsa each year a famous children’s author. This celebration of reading and writing also gives children all over Tulsa County an opportunity to meet and talk with an author they’ve only read about in books.

And to make sure there are plenty of books to read, upon Anne’s death in 2000, the Zarrow family chose to remember her with the Anne V. Zarrow Library Books for Children’s Fund with a $125,000 challenge grant. Each year, this endowment pays for hundreds of new children’s books to put on the library shelves.

With all fairy tales, there are happy endings. You have only to look at the list of award winners for inspiration to see how the childhood dreams of just one girl named “Broomstick Annie” now introduces the minds of hundreds of young readers and writers to a world of possibilities, of imagination and creativity.

The Award

The Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers’ Literature was inaugurated in 1991 and is given annually by the Tulsa Library Trust. In 1992, it was permanently named in honor of Anne V. Zarrow. Its purpose is to give formal recognition, on behalf of the Tulsa County community, to nationally acclaimed authors who have made a significant contribution to the field of literature for children and young adults.

2023 Fact Sheet

WHAT:

The Award for Young Readers' Literature was inaugurated in 1991 and is given annually by the Tulsa Library Trust. In 1992, it was permanently named in honor of Anne V. Zarrow. Its purpose is to give formal recognition, on behalf of the Tulsa County community, to nationally acclaimed authors who have made a significant contribution to the field of literature for children and young adults.

The award consists of a $10,000 cash prize and an engraved crystal book.

Past winners are: Nikki Grimes (2022), Jason Reynolds (2021), Katherine Applegate (2020), Rita Williams-Garcia (2019), Pam Muñoz Ryan (2018), Laurie Halse Anderson (2017), Gordon Korman (2016), Sharon Draper (2015), Jack Gantos (2014), Jim Murphy (2013), Jacqueline Woodson (2012), Kathryn Lasky (2011), Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (2010), Christopher Paul Curtis (2009), Louis Sachar (2008), Kate DiCamillo (2007), Sharon Creech (2006), Avi (2005), Susan Cooper (2004), Russell Freedman (2003), Richard Peck (2002), E.L. Konigsburg (2001), Jerry Spinelli (2000), Jane Yolen (1999), Cynthia Voigt (1998), Gary Paulsen (1997), Walter Dean Myers (1996), Lois Lowry (1994), Katherine Paterson (1993), Madeleine L'Engle (1992) and S.E. Hinton (1991).

WHO:

Steve Sheinkin is the winner of the 2023 Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers’ Literature.

WHEN/WHERE:

Steve Sheinkin will accept the award on Friday, May 5 at 6 p.m. in Connor's Cove Theatre at Hardesty Regional Library, 8316 E. 93rd Street, Tulsa.

Sheinkin will speak about his life, his writing process, and his works and help present awards to winners of the 2023 Young People’s Creative Writing Contest.

SPONSORS:

The award is a program of the Tulsa City-County Library, made possible through the Tulsa Library Trust by a grant from the Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation.

ABOUT THE AWARD WINNER:

A New York City native, Sheinkin grew up loving books about history, action and outdoor adventure. During and after college, he wrote screenplays and directed films with friends, published a graphic novel, and then edited and wrote textbooks before transitioning to writing about the people, places and things that interested him most. Through his fiction and nonfiction books, Sheinkin makes complicated subjects clear and enticing to help children and teens get excited about both history and reading.

GOALS OF THE ZARROW AWARD:

To encourage children and teens to read and write by promoting the prize, and the author’s books and visit, throughout the library’s summer reading program and the Young People’s Creative Writing Contest.
To introduce children and teens to favorite authors of literary distinction and present famous authors as real people and role models.
To provide a major event that brings families into the library and is a rallying point for the Summer Reading Program.
To give young readers the opportunity to learn from a successful author's writing experiences.

ABOUT THE LIBRARY TRUST:

The Tulsa Library Trust is a public charity created by private contributions to benefit Tulsa City-County Library. Income generated by the Trust's endowment is used to fund projects and purchase materials that the library could not afford through its operating budget.

Mr. Henry's Books, Educator Workshop

Mr. Henry's Books is named in honor of Mr. Henry Zarrow.

This annual workshop for educators features a book by the Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers' Literature recipient; all participants receive copies of a selected book for each student in their class and curriculum focused on the award recipient. Teachers also learn about online education-based library services, and other youth-based programs and services hosted through the library in an effort to further engage them in literacy, learning, and the library.

This program is sponsored through the Tulsa Library Trust, made possible by a grant from the Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation, and hosted in partnership with TulsaKids Magazine.

Visit here for more information about the Mr. Henry's Books educator's workshop.