Safiyyah’s War has won the Indie Book Prize for the Children’s Fiction category

The awards are curated by independent bookshops, and run as part of Independent Bookshop Week (IBW), which is organised by the Booksellers Association from 15th-22nd June. They celebrate the best paperbacks of the summer across fiction, non-fiction, children’s fiction and picture books.

Winner of the Children’s Fiction category is Safiyyah’s War (Andersen Press) by Hiba Noor Khan, described as an extraordinary novel set in occupied Paris which finds a girl engaged in dangerous resistance work after her father is arrested by the Nazis. The Picture Book prize went to The Dress in the Window (Oxford University Press) by Robert Tregoning and illustrated by Pippa Curnick. It was described by the judges as “an uplifting, elegant story of self-love, acceptance and embracing your true self, told in elegant rhyme”.

Hiba Noor Khan said: “Winning the Indie Book Award still has not sunk in at all for me… and I’m not sure that it ever will! This is such a special award, independent bookshops are like treasures, both for authors as well as for the wider communities they nourish. To have been voted as the winner by indie booksellers is just the most immense honour, one that I will cherish for the rest of my life. I am so grateful to each and every one of you who recognised Safiyyah along with all that she represents. Thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. For all your support and encouragement, and for pressing this book of hope into the hands of readers. I am awed, astonished, overjoyed and forever grateful!”

The Children’s categories were judged by Jenny Eagles (Owl and Pyramid Bookshop), Helen Tamblyn-Saville (Wonderland Bookshop), Gordon Stewart (The Wedale Bookshop), Denise Evans-Barr (Custom House Bookshop) and Keira Andrews (Reading Roots).

You can read the full article here.