Novellist Shazaf Haider’s recent book A Firefly In The Dark has been awarded a literary prize by her young readers across the border.
The organisers of Peek a Book Children Literature Festival in Mumbai announced on Facebook that Haider’s book has won their Children’s Choice Award, judged by three young readers in their early teens.
Published in April 2018, A Firefly In The Dark traces the story a young girl, Sharmeen, who starts living with her grandmother after her father is injured in an accident and mother suffers from depression. The novel has a supernatural element as the grandmother’s fantastical stories come knocking into real life.
Mysterious, magical and moving, A Firefly in the Dark is a page-turner and a work of fantasy with soaring imagination that has touched the heart of many young readers.
Haider took to Twitter to express her gratitude and shared, “So Firefly has won the Peek a Book Children Festival’s prize. The jurors are 13, 14 and 15 years old and that just makes my day.”
So Firefly has won the Peek a Book Children Festival’s prize. The jurors are 13, 14 and 15 years old and that just makes my day. Very thrilled that children and pre-adults are liking Sharmeen and Jugnu and the stories of the Jinn.
— Shazaf Fatima (@Shazaffatima) March 27, 2019
Other contenders for the prize include What Maya Saw by Shabnam Minwala, When Morning Comes by Arushi Raina and Year of the Weeds by Siddhartha Sarma.
A Firefly In The Dark is also being adapted into a web series by the Indian telecom giant Reliance Jio.
