PADIBA Awards 2025
The 2025 Pedro and Daniel Intersectionality Book Awards winners and finalists have been announced!
THE PB/GN WINNER IS:
Sister Friend by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, illustrated by Shahrzad Maydani, published by Abrams Books for Young Readers
Ameena feels invisible until another non-white Muslim child joins her class. Finding the right words to become friends is tricky, but they find those words together.
She is Black American and Muslim. Classmates exclude her because of her visibly different appearance: skin color and hair.
THE MG/YA WINNER IS:
The Maid and the Crocodile by Jordan Ifueko, published by Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams.
In this Afrofantasy, a disabled teen maid magically gifted to break curses by cleaning houses, captures the interest of a greedy schemer and a handsome deity.
Small Sade is impoverished and illiterate from dyslexia. She is ostracized because of her appearance (cane use and vitiligo). She suffers from domestic violence and severe child labor in a West Africa-coded society.
THE PB/GN HONOR BOOKS ARE:
A Kurta to Remember by Gauri Dalvi Pandya, illustrated by Avani Dwivedi, published by Sleeping Bear Press.
A little girl worries about moving far from her Aaji and Ajoba in India, but her Aaji fills the pockets of her handmade kurta with special items to help her remember home.
She is a young girl from the western region of India, who worries about losing the connection to her culture when she emigrates.
Snow Steps by Karen Latchana Kenny, illustrated by Irina Avgustinovich, published by Worthy Kids.
With a new friend and some courage, a young bi-racial girl learns to brave the snowy Minnesota winter after immigrating from tropical Guyana.
She is a bi-racial [Indian, Irish] young girl, and a recent immigrant from Guyana. She struggles to adjust to her new snowy home in Minnesota.
THE MG/YA HONOR BOOKS ARE:
Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar, published by Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.
Spanning 500 years, Across So Many Seas tells the stories of four Sephardic girls united by their love of music, poetry, and a search for home.
Four girls growing up during turbulent times in Spain, Turkey, Cuba, and the US, each faces additional challenges due to their gender, and mixed Spanish and Jewish heritage.
The Color of Sound by Emily Barth Isler, published by Carolrhoda Books, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group.
This musical prodigy teen stops playing the violin, upsetting her ambitious mother. Forced to spend the summer at the home of grandparents she barely knows, she encounters a glitch in space-time that changes everything.
The girl is Jewish and neurodivergent. Her synesthesia – the blending of senses (in her case sight and sound) – intertwines with her family’s experiences of intergenerational trauma as descendants of Holocaust survivors.
MORE ABOUT THE PEDRO AND DANIEL INTERSECTIONALITY BOOK AWARDS:
We anticipate a larger number of books for the 2026 PADIBA, so the submission period will be earlier [July 1 – August 31, 2025]. Anyone can submit their book for consideration, but we ask that the publisher send the physical book to the judging committee members as soon as they are available.
Details about The Pedro and Daniel Intersectionality Book Awards can be found at ReadYourWorld.org/awards.
The 2025 Pedro and Daniel Intersectionality Book Awards Longlists and Commended Titles have been announced.
These high quality books with intersectional protagonists were chosen by a judging committee of Read Your World, Inc. board members.
Popular book influencers Julie Fouts Majerčák and Jennifer LaGarde will join the judging committee to choose the winners and finalists from each longlist.
The winner and finalists for each category [PB/GN and MG/YA] will be announced in late April. Each winner will receive $1500.
The 2025 Pedro and Daniel Intersectionality Book Awards
Longlist: Picture Books and Graphic Novels
A Kurta to Remember (Sleeping Bear Press)
Written by Gauri Dalvi Pandya, Illustrated by Avani Dwivedi
A Little Bit of Everything (Sleeping Bear Press)
Written by Meghana Narayan, Illustrated by Michelle Carlos
Joyful Song: A Naming Story (Levine Querido)
Written by Lesléa Newman, Illustrated by Susan Gal
Love of the Half-Eaten Peach (Reycraft Books)
Written by Lee Wind, Illustrated by Jieting Chen
Lupita’s Brown Ballet Slippers (Beaming Books)
Written by Steena Hernandez, Illustrated by Melissa Castillo
Next Level: A Hymn in Gratitude for Neurodiversity (Tilbury House)
Written by Samara Cole Doyon, Illustrated by Kaylani Juanita
Sister Friend (Abrams Books for Young Readers)
Written by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, Illustrated by Shahrzad Maydani
Snow Steps (Worthy Kids)
Written by Karen Latchana Kenney, Illustrated by Irina Avgustinovich
This is My Shabbat (Green Bean Books)
Written by Chris Barash, Illustrated by Aviel Basil
Wild Greens, Beautiful Girl (Sleeping Bear Press)
Written by Erica Lee Schlaikjer, Illustrated by Chinyee Chiu
The 2025 Pedro and Daniel Intersectionality Book Awards
Longlist: Middle Grade and Young Adult Novels
A Two-Placed Heart (Tu Books, Lee & Low Books)
Written by Doan Phuong Nguyen
Across So Many Seas (Nancy Paulsen Books, Penguin Random House)
Written by Ruth Behar
Benji Zeb is a Ravenous Werewolf (Tundra, Penguin Random House)
Written by Deke Moulton
Lockjaw (Tundra, Penguin Random House)
Written by Matteo L. Cerilli
My So-Called Family (Farrar Straus Giroux, MacMillan)
Written by Gia Gordon
The Color of Sound (Carolrhoda Lab, Lerner Publishing Group)
Written by Emily Barth Isler
The Diamond Explorer (Dutton Books for Young Readers, Penguin Random House)
Written by Kao Kalia Yang
The Maid and the Crocodile (Amulet Books, Abrams)
Written by Jordan Ifueko
The No-Girlfriend Rule (Atheneum Books for Young Readers; Simon & Schuster)
Written by Christen Randall
They Thought They Buried Us (Carolrhoda Lab, Lerner Publishing Group)
Written by Noneiqa Ramos
The 2025 Pedro and Daniel Intersectionality Book Awards
Commended Titles: Picture Books and Graphic Novels
Philomel Books (Penguin Random House)
Written by Nadia Salomon, Illustrated by London Ladd
Abuelita’s Gift: A Día de Muertos Story
Knopf Books for Young Readers (Penguin Random House)
Written by Mariana Ríos Ramírez, Illustrated by Sara Palacios
Kokila (Penguin Random House)
Written by Kao Kalia Yang, Illustrated by Khou Vue
Gloriana Presente: A First Day of School Story
Christy Ottaviano Books (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Written by Alyssa Reynoso-Morris, Illustrated by Doris M. Rodríguez-Graber
Ladybug Launch: Inspired by a True Story of Chinitas in Space
Margaret K. McElderry (Simon & Schuster)
Written by Natalia Ojeda and Melissa Trempe, Illustrated by Manuela Montoya
Mercedes Sosa: Voice of the People
Children’s Book Press (Lee & Low Books)
Written and illustrated by Aixa Pérez-Prado
Quill Tree (Harper Collins)
Written by Erica Lyons And Christina Matula, Illustrated by Tracy Subisak
Not Yet: The Story of an Unstoppable Skater
Orchard Books (Scholastic Press)
Written by Zahra Lari and Hadley Davis, Illustrated by Sara Alfageeh
Tu Books (Lee & Low Books)
Written by G. Neri, Illustrated by David Brame
Seeker of Truth: Kailash Satyarthi’s Fight to End Child Labor
Little Bee Books
Written by Srividhya Venkat, Illustrated by Danica da Silva Pereira
The 2025 Pedro and Daniel Intersectionality Book Awards
Commended Titles: Middle Grade and Young Adult Novels
Any Way You Look Scholastic Press
Written by Maleeha Siddiqui
At the End of the River Styx Page Street YA
Written by Michelle Kulwicki
Benny Ramírez and the Nearly Departed Knopf Books for Young Readers (Penguin Random House)
Written by José Pablo Iriarte
Gooseberry Amulet Books (Abrams)
Written by Robin Gow
Haunting Melody Tiny Ghost Press
Written by Chloe Spencer
Kicked Out Tu Books (Lee & Low Books)
Written by A. M. Dassu
London On My Mind Scholastic Press
Written by Clara Alves, Translated by Nina Perrotta
Paige Not Found Scholastic Press
Written by Jen Wilde
Saint Seducing Gold Amulet Books (Abrams)
Written by Brittany N. Williams
The Vanishing Station Amulet Books (Abrams)
Written by Ana Ellickson
To view and purchase these books at a discount: Bookshop.org/shop/PADIBA
