Image
2014 South Asia Book Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature Ceremony     - Elizabeth Suneby, Jennifer Bradbury, Farhana Zia - 10/18/2014 - 3:00pm

2014 South Asia Book Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature Ceremony

Children's Program Room

Please join us for the 2014 South Asia Book Award Ceremony honoring Elizabeth Suneby, author of Razia's Ray of Hope: One Girl's Dream of an Education, with the 2014 SABA Award Book for Children, Jennifer Bradbury, author of A Moment Comes, with the 2014 SABA Award Book for Young Adults, and Farhana Zia, author of The Garden of My Imaan, with the 2014 SABA Honor.

 

After remarks from committee members and presentations by Ms. Suneby, Ms. Bradbury, and Ms. Zia, the event will close with a book signing. Award books will be on sale at the event. In recent years an increasing number of high-quality children's and young adult fiction books have appeared that portray South Asia or South Asians living abroad. To encourage and commend authors and publishers who produce such books, and to provide teachers with recommendations for classroom use, since 2011 the South Asia National Outreach Consortium (SANOC) has offered up to two outstanding works of literature, from early childhood to secondary reading levels, which accurately and skillfully portrays South Asia or South Asians in the diasporas.

 

In Rakia's Ray of Hope, Razia dreams of getting an education, but in her small village in Afghanistan, girls haven't been allowed to attend school for many years. When a new girls' school opens in the village, a determined Razia must convince her father and oldest brother that educating her would be best for her, their family and their community. Razia's Ray of Hope is the latest inspiring story from the CitizenKid collection. It is based on the true stories of the students of the Zabuli Education Center for Girls just outside of Kabul, founded by a generous and resourceful woman named Razia Jan, a CNN hero, who also appears in the story.

 

A Moment Comes is set in India in 1947.  In a matter of months, the country will be divided along religious lines into two separate states.  All of India waits anxiously–but three young people have other pressing matters at hand:  Tariq, a Muslim born and raised in India, is determined to scheme his way to Oxford; Margaret, a cartographer’s daughter, is in India to escape a scandal back home; and beautiful Anupreet struggles just to survive the daily violence and mayhem. Muslim, English, Sikh.  They are all on wildly different paths.  But they are also on the verge of changing one another’s lives forever.  Set against the backdrop of the nearly forgotten history of the partition of India, this is a heart-pounding tale of love, violence, and history–and the difference one person can make in the life of another.

 

In The Garden of My Imaan, Aliya already struggles with trying to fit in, feeling confident enough to talk to the cute boy or stand up to mean kids the fact that she s Muslim is just another thing to deal with. When Marwa, a Moroccan girl who shares her faith if not her culture, comes to Aliya s school, Aliya wonders even more about who she is, what she believes, and where she fits in. Should she fast for Ramadan? Should she wear the hijab? She s old enough for both, but does she really want to call attention to herself?

 

This event is presented in partnership with the South Asia National Outreach Consortium and is free and open to the public.  For more details about the award books, authors, and event, visit: southasiabookaward.org .

Elizabeth Suneby

Elizabeth Suneby

Elizabeth Suneby loves to play with words! Writing helps Liz comes up with new ideas, learn new things, figure out her feelings and express them to other people. Writing is also how Liz earns a living. She writes for companies big and small. She writes magazine articles. And she writes books for children and teens that help kids find their voice in a hopeful world. Most of the books she co-authors with her best friend from college, Diane Heiman. Their first picture book for young children, It's a...It's a...It's a Mitzvah, was named one of the 50 Best Spiritual Books of 2012. Liz's latest book, Razia's Ray of Hope, is out. It's based on a true story of a girl in Afghanistan and how she convinces the men in her family to allow her to go to school. Take a look.

Recent Book
Razia's Ray of Hope: One Girl's Dream of an Education

Jennifer Bradbury

Jennifer Bradbury

Jennifer Bradbury is an English teacher living in Burlington, Washington. She and her husband took a two-month long bicycling trek from Charleston, South Carolina, to Los Angeles, California for their honeymoon, changing more than fifty flat tires along the way. She was also a one-day winner of Jeopardy! Shift was her first novel. A Moment Comes was born out of her experiences teaching in the Punjab region of India while on a Fulbright exchange in 2005.

Recent Book
A Moment Comes

Farhana Zia

Farhana Zia

Farhana Zia immigrated to the US from Hyderabad, India in 1967.  She and her husbandlive in Framingham, Massachusetts. They have two children and three grandchildren, aged 5, 3 and 2.  Zia is an elementary school teacher, and has taught grade 4 for the past 26 years.  She has taught fourth grade for the past 26 years and is just as enthusiastic to be in the classroom, as she was my first year in this profession.  

Recent Book
The Garden of My Imaan