Saadia Faruqi

media release: Join us for the 2025 South Asia Book Award Meet the Author webinar series as we celebrate the award-winning authors and titles of 2025.

The South Asia Book Award proudly presents the 2025 Winner in the Middle Readers Category, The Partition Project, by Saadia Faruqi.

Attendees will have a chance to win copies of the book.

When her grandmother comes from Pakistan to live with Maha and her family, Maha is not thrilled. She has to give up her room and move to the attic - and worst of all, she is charged with taking care of Dadi after school. Added to her worries is the fact that Maha needs to come up with a memorable project for her media studies class - and since she is determined to be a journalist someday, she needs a truly inspiring idea. The Dadi starts talking about her own childhood. As she begins to recount the heartbreaking events surrounding the Partition of India and her family's move to the new country of Pakistan in 1947, Maha thinks she has found her idea. And unexpectedly, Maha begins to understand her heritage, her family, and the sacrifices they have made.

Acclaimed author Saadia Faruqi draws on her own heritage to tell this moving and thought-provoking story about the power of courage and the resilinece of the human spirit.

Saadia Faruqi is a Pakistani American author and interfaith activist. She writes the popular children’s early reader series Yasmin and other books for children, including award-winning middle grade novels, chapter books, and graphic novels. Her 2025 novel The Strongest Heart, depicting mental illness and its effect on families, received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, School Library Journal, Booklist and the Horn Book. In 2024, The Partition Project, highlighting the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan, won the South Asia Book Award. Her 2023 graphic novel Saving Sunshine, about animal conservation and biodiversity, was a finalist for the Eisner award, a Kirkus Best Book, and a New York Public Library Best Book. Additionally, A Place At The Table (co-written with Laura Shovan) was a Sydney Taylor Notable in 2021 for its heartwarming friendship story between a Muslim and Jewish girl. Saadia is editor-in-chief of Blue Minaret, a magazine for Muslim art, poetry and prose, and was featured in Oprah Magazine in 2017 as a woman making a difference in her community. She lives in Houston, TX with her husband and children.

The South Asia Book Award 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. Honor Books and Highly Commended Books will also be recognized by the award committee for their contribution to this body of literature on the region. See all past winners, as well as educational resources, on our website.