The Mark Twain Readers Award, or simply Mark Twain Award, is a children's book award which annually recognizes one book selected by vote of Missouri schoolchildren from a list prepared by librarians and volunteer readers. It is now one of four Missouri Association of School Librarians (MASL) Readers Awards and is associated with school grades 4 to 6; the other MASL Readers Awards were inaugurated from 1995 to 2009 and are associated with grades K–3, 6–8, 9–12 and nonfiction. The 1970 Newbery Medal winning book Sounder, by William H. Armstrong, was the inaugural winner of the Mark Twain Award in 1972. Peg Kehret has won the Mark Twain Award four times, once in 1999 for Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio, a memoir of her childhood, and three times in six years from 2007 to 2012 for novels. Nomination guidelines Books should interest children in grades four through six. Books should be an original work written by an author living in the United States. Books should be of literary value which may enrich children's personal lives. Books should be published two years prior to nomination on a master list of twelve nominees. Voting process Though the list of nominated books is designated for grades four through six, any student can vote for the winner so long as they satisfy the following criteria: Book must have been read by voter. Voter must have read at least four books from the list of nominees. Voter can only vote once. Schools design their own ballots. Individual votes for each school (or qualified group) are tallied on a single sheet and submitted to the MASL. Winners The award has recognized a single book by a single writer without exception from 1972. 2021 Blended by Sharon Draper 2020 One for Sorrow: a Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn 2019 Framed! by James Ponti 2018 The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley 2017 A Million Ways Home by Dianna Dorisi-Winget 2016 Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein 2015 Wonder by R.J. Palacio 2014 The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann 2013 Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper 2012 Runaway Twin by Peg Kehret 2011 Stolen Children by Peg Kehret 2010 Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn 2009 The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan 2008 The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan 2007 Abduction! by Peg Kehret 2006 The