Crossword Book Awards 2025 shortlist highlights children’s stories of friendship, courage, and discovery

Featuring authors like Zai Whitaker, Varsha Seshan, and Shabnam Minwalla, this year’s children’s shortlist includes six standout titles across mystery, nature, history, and humour

As Children’s Day 2025 draws near, readers, parents, and educators have more than just nostalgia to look forward to. The Crossword Book Awards 2025 has unveiled its shortlist in the Children’s Literature category, offering a vibrant and diverse reading list that combines heartfelt storytelling, adventure, and deep cultural resonance.
This year’s handpicked selection features six titles that are as entertaining as they are thoughtful. The authors include celebrated voices in Indian children’s literature and debut names making an impact with fresh narrative energy. From jungles and schoolyards to forgotten empires and mysteries hidden in apartment buildings, each book invites young readers to see the world with empathy, curiosity, and courage.

At the heart of the shortlist is Varsha Seshan’s The Wall Friends Club, published by HarperCollins Publishers India. The story follows a young girl who discovers the joy of connection and self-expression through a club formed around a compound wall. Enhanced by Denise Antao’s warm illustrations, the book is a quiet tribute to imagination, belonging, and the power of small gestures that become large life lessons.
Nature lovers and budding ecologists will be drawn to Zai Whitaker’s Ajay of Agumbe and the Signal Snake, published by Pratham Books. This story, illustrated by Rajiv Eipe, takes children into the heart of the Agumbe rainforest. With humour and ecological sensitivity, Whitaker introduces a lovable protagonist whose adventures bring alive India’s biodiversity and its fragile balance.

In a completely different arena, Vibha Batra’s Kushti Kid (published by Scholastic India) blends sport and emotion through the story of a young wrestler. Batra crafts a character who finds resilience and inner strength amid setbacks, revealing how sports can become a metaphor for life’s inner battles. The storytelling is fast-paced and packed with spirit, making it a perfect read for children navigating their own personal milestones.
Shifting to a whodunit for young minds, Shabnam Minwalla brings her signature wit to The Body in the Swimming Pool, released by Speaking Tiger. Set in a Mumbai apartment complex, the mystery unfolds with charm and surprise. The book offers clever pacing, sharp characters, and just the right amount of suspense to keep readers hooked while introducing them to layered storytelling.

For history lovers, The Book of Emperors by Ashwitha Jayakumar is a gem in the shortlist. Published by Penguin Random House India, and illustrated by Nikhil Gulati, the book traces the lives and legacies of India’s great emperors. Without resorting to textbook language, the author makes complex histories accessible and engaging, offering children a new way to connect with their country’s past.
Each of these titles carries the stamp of what the Crossword Book Awards have come to represent storytelling that remains rooted in Indian realities while sparking the global imagination of the next generation. This year’s selection reflects a growing maturity in Indian children’s publishing, with a shift toward themes that move beyond moral lessons into territory that is bold, layered, and emotionally intelligent.

The awards, which have long supported both literary merit and reader appeal, signal what young audiences are craving: narratives that trust their intelligence, honour their diversity, and speak directly to their sense of wonder. The selection includes stories that tackle large themes with grace, including environmental protection, gender roles, history, community, and growing up.
What makes this shortlist particularly timely is how it aligns with what educators and literacy advocates have been underscoring that reading during formative years is not merely about language acquisition or academic edge. It is also about building empathy, critical thinking, and identity. The books featured here give children stories in which they can see themselves, their families, their cities, and their future hopes.

Each title is available across bookstores and online platforms, making them easily accessible for Children’s Day gifting. More importantly, they offer families and schools an opportunity to start conversations beyond the page about kindness, resilience, teamwork, curiosity, and the unknown paths that every child is destined to travel.
The Crossword Book Awards, one of India’s oldest and most respected literary recognitions, continues to evolve its categories and outreach. In a market that is often flooded with international imports, this shortlist demonstrates that Indian children’s literature is thriving and deserves to be placed on bookshelves around the world.
This Children’s Day, parents and educators can do more than gift a book they can open a door. Because stories, especially the right ones, do not just inform. They transform.

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