gold stevie award logo

Team OverDrive Education is thrilled to announce that our Sora student reading app was named a Gold Stevie® Award winner in the 2021 Annual American Business Awards®. Sora earned this distinction in the Education & Reference category of the Mobile Web & App Awards group.

The American Business Awards are the U.S.A.’s premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. More than 250 professionals worldwide participated in the judging process to select this year’s Stevie Award winners.

This award marks another milestone in a year of accelerated growth for Sora, which helps schools ensure access to the right book for every reader. Backed by OverDrive’s industry-leading catalog of millions of titles from thousands of publishers, Sora is now available to more than 48,000 schools worldwide.

Here’s what the Stevie Award judges had to say about Sora:

“Great use of technology to encourage kids to read. The app is simple and easy to follow.”

“What could be more important than building a nation of literate adults, starting in K-12? Features that I especially love – offering dyslexic fonts; connectivity to local public libraries, and driving sharp increases in summer reading.”

“Wow — I wish my kids’ schools offered Sora. The app is very easy to navigate (for both adults and children). It also cuts down on carrying heavy books back and forth to and from school. Also the teacher can actually monitor progress (kids can’t just move the bookmark like I could).”

“Sora is an excellent application of technology to connect kids with access and resources to read. Sora’s tools also help young readers understand more of what they read by offering a built-in dictionary and gamification tactics to make reading more fun.”

“Fantastic use of content deployment across multiple ages and users. The cross-device integration to allow students to read wherever and whenever creates a platform users will go back to. The tie-in of local schools and their libraries is a much needed feature for home schooling and pandemic lifestyle.”

“Reading is so important for students and some need to be engaged in a certain way to make it appealing. With much time spent on tablets and other devices, young students can use their electronic know-how to select books by using the Sora app.”

“Definitely factors in the unique needs of this young segment that needs support in developing a reading habit. Clear and easy to use, lovely design system and interaction patterns.”

“Nice features, library connection with the borrow feature is awesome, overall valuable asset for kids to continue reading throughout the school year.”

Interested in learning more about Sora? Visit DiscoverSora.com to find out how Sora helps schools find the right book for every reader.

Then, join a live demo to see it in action!  Our team will take questions via Q&A, with plenty of opportunity for follow up. Hope to see you there!