Historical fiction novel Safiyyah's War by Hiba Noor Khan has been announced as this year's Children's and YA winner of the Jhalak Prize. 

First awarded in March 2017, the Jhalak Prize and its sister award Jhalak Children’s and YA Prize founded in 2020, seek to celebrate books by writers of colour in the UK and Ireland. 

Set among the French Resistance in Paris in World War Two, Safiyyah's War is the story of independent, adventurous and muslim child, Safiyyah and how her life is changed when Nazis attack her Jewish neighbours and her own father is arrested for his secret Resistance work. 

A Physics teacher and a recent Global Diplomacy graduate, Hiba is also an activist; she’s worked for The Children’s Society as a Refugee Advocate and for the United Nations IOM on international development projects. She has also delivered humanitarian aid in Syrian refugee camps and worked on reforestation initiatives in Tanzania.

Reviewing the book for LoveReading4Kids, Julia Eccleshare described it as, "A wonderful story of compassion and courage that illuminates how children’s lives can be changed by the big events of history"

The other books shortlisted for the prize were:

Geoffrey Gets The Jitters by  Nadia Shireen

How to Die Famous by Benjamin Dean

Steady for This by Nathaneal Lessore 

To the Other Side by Erika Meza 

Wild Song by Candy Gourlay

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