The South Asia Book Award, administered by the South Asia National Outreach Consortium, is given annually for up to three outstanding works of literature, from picture books to young adult novels, which accurately and skillfully portray the experience of individuals living in South Asia, or of South Asians living in other parts of the world. The following selections range from 2015-2025.
Because his grandmother is arriving from India, Rishi wants to cook curry alongside his dad using the flavors from his family's special spice box, but when he drops the box that holds the family's heart and history, he draws courage and meaning from their treasured past to set things right.
When her grandmother comes off the airplane in Houston from Pakistan, Mahnoor knows that having Dadi move in is going to disrupt everything about her life. She doesn't have time to be Dadi's unofficial babysitter: her journalism teacher has announced that their big assignment will be to film a documentary, which feels more like storytelling than what Maha would call 'journalism.' As Dadi starts to settle into life in Houston and Maha scrambles for a subject for her documentary, the two of them start talking--about Dadi's childhood in northern India, and about the Partition that forced her to leave her home and relocate to the newly created Pakistan.
Ajay is a Mumbai railway kid, a newspaper seller, but his great dream is to be a journalist. His dream comes true when he and a gang of friends create their own newspaper, but what is the cost of uncovering the truth?
A day in the life of an Afghan refugee child and their family, where every moment revolves around love, family, and the carpet that connects them to home.
Concerned about the pollution the Ganesha statues cause when her town celebrates her favorite festival, Ganesha Chaturthi, young Prema comes up with an innovative plan to keep the river clean.
1998, Colombo. The Sri Lankan Civil War is raging, but everyday life must go on. At Kavi's school, her friends talk about the weekly Top 40, the Backstreet Boys, Shahrukh Khan, Leo & Kate... and who died--or didn't--in the latest bombing. But Kavi is afraid of something even scarier than war. She fears that if her friends discover her secret--that she is not who she is pretending to be--they'll stop talking to her. Kavi's scholarship to her elite new school was supposed to be everything she ever wanted, but as she tries to find some semblance of normalcy in a country on fire, nothing is going according to plan. In an effort to fit in with her wealthy, glittering, and self-assured new classmates, Kavi begins telling lies, trading her old life--where she's a poor girl whose mother has chosen a new husband over her daughter--for a new one, where she's rich, loved, and wanted. But how long can you pretend to be someone else?
A young girl leaves her beloved doll behind when she must make the journey from India to Pakistan in the aftermath of their partition by the British government.
In Chennai, india, after spending his whole life in jail with his mother, who is serving time for a crime she did not commit, nine-year-old Kabir is suddenly released and has to figure out how to survive on his own in the outside world.
Varun is fascinated when he watches his sister's dancing class, where she learns bharatanatyam, a dance from India. He tries out some moves at home in secret since he is convinced dancing is not for boys. His grandfather tries to convince him otherwise.
A young girl explores the vibrant rainbow of items for sale in a southern Indian street market as she searches for a gift for her mother. Includes facts about the items mentioned and markets around the world, as well as photographs taken by the author in her hometown of Chennai, India.
Four determined homeless children make a life for themselves in Chennai, India.
Priya lives in the United States and her family is from India. She feels the magic of the place her family comes from through her Babi Ba's colorful descriptions of India--from the warm smell of spices to the swish-swish sound of a rustling sari. Together, Priya and Babi Ba make their heritage live on through the traditions that they infuse into their everyday lives.
In Pakistan, Amal holds on to her dream of being a teacher even after becoming an indentured servant to pay off her families debt to the wealthy and corrupt Khan family.
The incredible story of the world's largest visionary environment: the Rock Garden of Chandigarh, kept secret by outsider artist Nek Chand for fifteen years.
In the threatened jungle of the Borderlands between Nepal and India during the 1970s, an orphaned boy discovers his fate as a great elephant driver.
A tiger cub's escaped from a reserve in the Sunderbans in West Bengal, India, and Neel, a poor boy from the islands, is determined to find her in order to save her from being captured and sold on the black market by Mr. Gupta and his men.
Chandra and her sister Deena see a demonstration of a "magic light," a solar-powered lantern, at a market near their home in Nepal and are determined to buy one, knowing it will help their little brother's cough to stop using kerosene lamps. Includes facts about Nepal and a DIY solar energy project.