Nominated Books List

The Neev Book Award for distinguished children’s literature aims to recognize outstanding writing that leads to a fuller understanding of India, Indian lives, and Indian stories.

This award aims to promote and encourage high-quality children’s literature from India.

In 2018, the Neev Literature Festival extended its vision to promote and encourage high-quality children’s literature from India.

The Neev Book Award 2018 was given in three categories: Picture Book, Young Readers, and Young Adults. The winners of the Neev Book Award 2018 award were:
I Will Save My Land by Rinchin, illustrated by Sagar Kolwankar and published by Tulika Books (PB); Tiger Boy by Mitali Perkins  and published by Duckbill (YR), and Queen of Ice by Devika Rangachari and published by Duckbill (YA). Winners were honoured with an award and cash prize of ₹1,00,000.

The 2019 Neev Book Award will recognise outstanding literature in four distinct categories.

Award categories and criteria

Picture Books

Illustrated books for children up to age six for children up to age six that display an understanding and respect for a young child’s sensibilities. A picture book must be a maximum of 48 pages in length, and it should provide the reader with a complementary visual experience. Picture books can narrate a story through both text and images, or only images.

Click on the image to give your ratings and review the book.

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I Need to Pee
by Neha Singh, Meenal Singh & Erik Egerup

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Machher Jhol
by Richa Jha & Sumanta Dey

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Red
by Sagar Kolwankar

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Neel on Wheels
by Lavanya Karthik & Habib Ali

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Sadiq Wants to Stitch
by Mamta Nainy & Niloufer Wadia

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Sera Learns to Fly
by Vinitha & Nirzara Verulkar

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The Clever Tailor
by Srividhya Venkat & Nayantara Surendranath

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The Tale of Babban Hajjam
by Ira Saxena & Mayukh Ghosh

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Thukpa for All
by Praba Ram, Sheela Preuitt & Shilpa Ranade

Emerging Readers

Books for audiences between the ages of 7 and 9. The book must address this audience both in terms of the appropriateness of the content, the level of the language, the length, and the age of the protagonist. These books may or may not have illustrations; they may be picture books or chapter books. We recommend that these books be between 7,000 and 20,000 words, with a maximum length of 20,000 words. Children in grades 1 to 3 should be able to read these books independently. Examples of books for emerging readers include “The Hole Books” by Duckbill or “The Magic Treehouse” books.

Click on the image to give your ratings and review the book.

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Flying with Grandpa
by Madhuri Kamat

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Petu Pumpkin Cheater Peter
by Arundhati Venkatesh

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The Adventures of Tootsie and Lama
by Stuti Agarwal

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The Adventures of Mooli and the Bully on Wheels
by Asha Nehemiah

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The Ammuchi Puchi
by Sharanya Manivannan

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When Jiya Met Urmila
by Shabnam Minwalla

Junior Readers

Books for audiences between the ages of 10 and 12. The book must address the audience both in terms of the appropriateness of content, the level of language, and age of the protagonist. Children in grades four to seven should be able to read these books independently. Examples of books for this category include Tiger Boy, by Mitali Perkins, and Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry.

Click on the image to give your ratings and review the book.

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Ahimsa
by Supriya Kelkar

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Jwala Kumar and the Gift of Fire: Adventures in Champakbagh
by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar

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Painters Potters Cooks and Kings
by Subhadra Sen Gupta

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The Cloudfarers
by Stephen Alter

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The Curious Case of the Sweet and Spicy Sweetshop
by Nandini Nayar

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The Dwarf, the Girl
and the Holy Goat
by Cordis Paldano

Young Adults

Books for audiences between the ages of 13 and 16. The book must address this audience both in terms of the appropriateness of content, the level of language, and age of the protagonist. Young Adult books may explore more mature content appropriate for teenagers. Examples of books in this category include Queen of Ice, by Devika Rangachari, and What Maya Saw, by Shabnam Minwalla.

Click on the image to give your ratings and review the book.

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Amrita Sher-Gil: Rebel with a Paintbrush
by Anita Vachharajani and Kalyani Ganapathy

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Indira
by Devapriya Roy

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Pashmina
by Nidhi Chanani

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This is Me, Mayil
by Niveditha Subramaniam and Sowmya Rajendran

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When Morning Comes
by Arushi Raina

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Year of the Weeds
by Siddhartha Sarma

Helpful tips from our Jury to get children to engage with books

For Parents
For Educators

Neev Book Award Jury – 2019

Maya earned a BA in English from Middlebury College and a Masters in Education Policy from Harvard University. She spent seventeen years teaching high school English

Rasil has been a passionate reader since the day she discovered a library. She worked in technology for 10 years before making the leap into a

Katie Day is an American who has lived overseas for over 30 years. She has a masters in Children’s Literature from the UK and teaching and

Nadine is an experienced teacher-librarian with a demonstrated history of working in the IB environment, following innovative practices. She is a strong education professional, demonstrating lifelong

Colin has been a teacher in the middle school, high school, in pre-university programmes and undergraduate programmes where he has taught English language, literature, theory of

Dhooleka Sarhadi Raj, PhD (Cantab.) is an anthropologist and author. Her book, “Where are you From? Middle Class Migrants in the Modern World” (2003, University of

Anuradha Ruhil Barua has extensive experience teaching the IB Diploma. She is passionate about language (s) and teaches English and Hindi. Her goal is to help

Gita has worked with children all over the world, earned her master’s degree in literacy education from Columbia University and now teaches second grade in Princeton,

Anil Chandiramani teaches high school literature at The Blake School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Often integrating South Asian texts and films into his literature courses that explore