The South Asia Book Award is delighted to announce our honors list for 2025! We received more than 100 submissions this year. Congratulations to all the amazing authors and illustrators listed below! Award Winners The Spice Box, written by Meera Sriram, illustrated by Sandhya Prabhat (Penguin Random House Canada, 2024). In this heartwarming intergenerational …
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 …
Amil and the After by Veera Hiranandani (Kokila/Penguin Random House, 2024) In Amil and the After, Veera Hiranandani continues the story from The Night Diary, following 12-year-old Amil as he adjusts to life in Bombay after the Partition of India. Struggling with loss, trauma, and identity, Amil finds healing through drawing, friendship, and small acts of …
Yasmeen Lari, Green Architect, written by Marzieh Abbas, illustrated by Hoda Hadadi (Clarion Books, 2024) Yasmeen Lari has shattered multiple glass ceilings—not only as Pakistan’s first woman architect but also as a passionate activist and community organizer dedicated to preserving the country’s historic architecture and heritage sites. She has led humanitarian efforts that empower local …
My Mother’s Tongues, written by Uma Menon, illustrated by Rahele Jomepour Bell (Candlewick Press, 2024) Sumi is in awe of her mother’s superpower: her mom can speak two languages- Malayalam and English. Through beautiful mixed media images, the author and illustrator invites the readers to join a story that highlights the importance of communicating through multilingualism …
Asha the Auto-Driver, written by Aruna Shekar, illustrated by Sandhya Prabhat (Tulika Books, 2024) Follow Asha as she drives in the beautiful, bustling streets of Chennai from dawn to dusk. Her green-and-yellow auto is more than just a ride — it’s a moving sanctuary where stories bloom like the jasmine strings she sells. (Grades PK-2) Award …
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 Door Is Open (anthology of stories) edited by Hena Khan (Little, Brown Books for Readers, 2024) The Door Is Open, edited by Hena Khan, is a powerful collection of interconnected short stories that center the voices and experiences of South Asian American middle schoolers in the fictional town of Maple Grove, New Jersey. Each story …
Lion of the Sky by Ritu Hemnani (Harper Collins, 2024) Prior to the Partition of 1947, Twelve-year-old Raj, and his best friend, Iqbal, spent their days flying kites, climbing trees, and eating mangoes. After Partition, a British lawyer draws a line on a map splitting India into separate countries. Raj’s family originally lived in what is …
