Scott O'Dell，（1898-1989)，出生在西部开拓时代的洛杉矶，他的大部分小说，都与拓荒者、印第安人有关。他是一个经历十分丰富的作家，他参加过两次世界大战，还是好莱坞最早的一批电影精英中的一员。他是一名电影摄像师兼技术编导，曾参与过多部早期无声电影的制作，最著名的一部是历史剧《班豪》。
　　奥台尔最热爱的事业是写作，特别是为青少年写历史题材的小说。这是在他少年时代就立下的志向，因为有一次他的家人告诉他，伟大的英国历史小说家司各特是他们家族的前辈。他毕生创作了近30部小说，其中大部分是历史小说。其著作《蓝色的海豚岛》曾荣获纽伯瑞儿童文学奖金奖、国际安徒生奖等七项儿童文学大奖，被很多美国学校列为必读书目及精读书目。

    1984年他还专门设立了以自己的名字命名的文学奖，每年5000美元奖金，奖励为青少年创作历史小说的后辈，以下是该奖项年度获奖者名单。  

2014: Bo at Ballard Creek by  Kirkpatrick Hill

2013: Chickadee  by Louise Erdrich
2012: Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

2011: One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams Garcia
2010: The Storm in the Barn by Matt Phelan
2009: Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
2008: Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
2007: The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages
2006: The Game of Silence by Louise Erdrich
2005: Worth by A. LaFaye
2004: A River Between Us by Richard Peck
2003: Trouble Don't Last by Shelley Pearsall
2002: The Land by Mildred D. Taylor
2001: The Art of Keeping Cool by Janet Taylor Lisle
2000: Two Suns in the Sky by Miriam Bat-Ami
1999: Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule by Harriette Gillem Robinet
1998: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
1997: Jip: His Story by Katherine Paterson
1996: The Bomb by Theodore Taylor
1995: Under the Blood-Red Sun by Graham Salisbury
1994: Bull Run by Paul Fleischman
1993: Morning Girl by Michael Dorris
1992: Stepping on the Cracks by Mary Downing Hahn
1991: A Time of Troubles by Pieter Van Raven
1990: Shades of Gray by Carolyn Reeder
1989: The Honorable Prison by Lyll Becerra de Jenkins
1988: Charley Skedaddle by Patricia Beatty
1987: Streams to the River, River to the Sea: A Novel of Sacagawea by Scott O'Dell
1986: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
1985: The Fighting Ground by Avi
1984: The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare