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 …
The Strongest Heart by Saadia Faruqi. (Quill Tree Books/HarperColllins, 2025) Join Mo, a Pakistani American boy, as he navigates family, faith, friendship, and belonging while confronting challenges that many young people experience but are seldom discussed openly. Moving to a new home and community in Texas, Mo must make sense of changing relationships, cultural expectations, …
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 …
The Camel Library: A True Story from Pakistan Written by Marzieh Abbas. Illustrated by Anain Shaikh. (Feiwel & Friends, 2025) Join Roshan, a hardworking camel, and his human companion, Murad, as they embark on an unexpected journey that brings books to children in rural Pakistan. Inspired by the true story of Pakistan’s first camel library, …
The First Girl on Stage: Tunga Dances the Yakshagana Written by Shruthi Rao. Illustrated by Devika Joglekar. (Yali Books/Sambasivan & Parikh, 2025) Join Tunga, a young girl in South India, as she pursues her dream of learning yakshagana, a vibrant traditional performance art that combines music, dance, storytelling, elaborate costumes, and dramatic expression. Inspired by …
The Mithai Box Is Not Empty Written by Namrata Agarwal. Illustrated by Parvati Pillai (Holiday House Press, 2025) Mithai is well known in South Asian families. Similar to a box of chocolates, it can be gifted during a celebration or given as an expression of love or appreciation. In The Mithai Box is Not Empty, …
Music of the Mountains Written by Sabrina Shah. Illustrated by Manal Mirza. (Barefoot Books, 2025) Join Roohi, a young girl in a contemporary Pashtun village in rural Pakistan, as she discovers the power of music, family, and cultural tradition through her love of the rabab, a beloved stringed instrument of the Pashtun people. Surrounded by …
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 …
I’m From Here Too by Kashmira Sheth (Peachtree Books, 2024) Eighth grader Anoop has a lot on his plate – a new classroom without his best friend, his grandfather in India is sick and possibly dying, and attacks on American Sikhs are increasing. Anoop’s only respite is the poetry that he writes, but as he tries …
