A Project of the South Asia National Outreach Consortium
The South Asia Book Award is delighted to announce our honors list for 2026! We received more than 100 submissions this year. Congratulations to all the amazing authors and illustrators listed below! Award Winners Midnight Motorbike Written by Maureen Shay Tajsar, Illustrated by Ishita Jain Neal Porter Books/Holiday House Join a young girl and her …
Arabic Folktales for Children: Timeless Stories to Share in English and Arabic Retold by Hadil Ghoneim. Illustrated by Ayah Khamis. (Tuttle Publishing, 2025) Journey across the Arabic-speaking world through a collection of timeless folktales rich in humor, wisdom, friendship, and gentle life lessons. Drawing from both oral and written storytelling traditions, Ghoneim retells eight beloved …
Tall Water: A Graphic Novel Written by S.J. Sindu. Illustrated by Dion MBD (HarperAlley, 2025) Join Nimmi, a Sri Lankan American teenager, as she travels to Sri Lanka in search of family, answers, and a deeper understanding of her own identity. Set against the backdrop of Sri Lanka’s civil conflict and the devastating 2004 Indian …
Home Has No Borders: A Collection of South Asian Stories Edited by Samira Ahmed and Sona Charaipotra (HarperCollins, 2025) Journey across a rich tapestry of contemporary stories that explore the many meanings of home for South Asian teens living across the diaspora. Through a diverse collection of voices, characters, and experiences, readers encounter moments of …
Fitting Indian, A Graphic Novel Written by Jyoti Chand. Illustrated by Tara Anand. (HarperAlley, 2025) Join Nitasha, a South Asian American teenager, as she navigates the complex expectations of family, friendship, identity, and belonging while trying to find her place in both her community and the wider world. Set against the backdrop of high school …
My Big, Fat Desi Wedding by Prerna Pickett (Page Street Publishing, 2024) This YA romance anthology, featuring eight different Desi authors, contains the spectrum of stories one expects from an anthology – it runs the gamut from a “family curse” that turns speech to truth, to a vampiric marriage, to the ever-beloved trope of one’s soulmate’s …
Four Eids and Funeralby Faridah Abikke-Iyimide and Adiba Jaigirdar (Macmillan, 2024) Four Eids and a Funeral is a heartfelt, humorous, and community-rooted love story co-written by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé and Adiba Jaigirdar. When Said Hossain returns to his small Vermont hometown for the funeral of a beloved librarian, he finds himself face-to-face with his former best friend, …
The Salt Thief by Neal Bascomb (Scholastic Focus, 2024) The Salt Thief is a dramatic, narrative nonfiction account of Gandhi’s Salt March and India’s struggle to gain independence from Britain. Gandhi is known throughout history for his nonviolent protestations. Leading his followers to the Arabian Sea to protest Britain’s salt tax led to decades of conflict …
A fictionalized graphic telling of Prince Siddhartha. This fictionalized graphic novel retells the story of Prince Siddhartha, the boy who came to be known as Gautama Buddha. The story shares the stages of his life, his path to enlightenment and how he became The Enlightened One. From the moment the young boy won a marble game and lost his sword to use in practice, to the moment of enlightenment and the diffusion of his teachings, this story is a great foundation text for understanding the life of Buddha. (Grades 6-9)
This non-fiction graphic novel comprises 16 distinctive narratives that provide the histories of India’s hard-fought independence. The author notes that in a few years’ time, “there will not be a single person alive who fought for [India’s] freedom”. These (his)stories are available for adolescent and young adult learners to gain a deeper, and more humane, understanding of India’s history. Classrooms can easily use this book as a supplement to research projects, or as a classroom text that delves deeper into India’s past. (Grades 8-12)
