Evie and Maryam’s Family Tree
Evie and Maryam’s Family Tree won the Guppy Open Submission in 2023 and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize for Younger Readers in 2026.
Evie and Maryam are in the same class at school, uneasily thrown together on a school project at the start of a new term. The two girls don’t think they have much in common – Maryam feels like an outsider; Evie is getting restless in her group of popular kids. But when the two girls each discover they’ve found identical mysterious folders containing documents in a secret language, they uncover a connection that goes back two generations, all the way to India, to partition, and to two best friends who inspired each other more than they ever know.
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Evie and Maryam’s Little Lies
Evie and Maryam are back in their second adventure! Maryam is thrilled to be awarded a scholarship to an esteemed boarding school but when she arrives, the other pupils are unwelcoming and she feels totally isolated. Evie is also struggling back at home, as the play she and Maryam wrote about their shared family history is being judged by an award-winning theatre director who takes an immediate dislike to the subject of India and partition. She and Maryam decide that they need to do something drastic - but before long the two girls have created a web of lies which get out of control... will they ever find their way back to the truth?
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Book of the Week, 1 June 2025. ‘A heartwarming story’
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UKLA Book Awards Shortlist 2026 - UK Literacy Association
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2026 Read for Empathy collection: https://empathylab.uk/rfe/
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'New Children's Books We Love' May 2025: ‘A wonderfully original dual narrative story set both in the present day and in India in the years leading up to independence from the British.’ https://www.booktrust.org.uk/book-recommendations/best-new-books/
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Our picks of the best children’s books coming out in Summer 2025: ‘This heartfelt historical story offers a glimpse into colonial India and how the past shapes the present. Highly recommended for UKS2 classes.’ https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/new-book-releases/new-childrens-books-summer-2025/
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Debut of the Month: ‘A beautifully told historical family-based exploration of identity, inheritance, difference and friendship.’ https://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/book/9781916558410/isbn/Evie-and-Maryams-Family-Tree-by-Janeen-Hayat.html
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‘With a strong historical background, throughout the book, we get flashbacks from the girls’ relatives in India and gain a fascinating insight into Indian life from the 1920’s onwards. This book is an emotive and complex story as we follow Evie and Maryam on their journey. We see their friendship develop with some struggles along the way including elements of bullying within their school group.
Easy to follow and interesting to read, this book explores family identity and how to find your way in the world. This is the story of prevailing friendships and the lasting effects they can have.’ https://childrensbooksireland.ie/our-recommendations/evie-and-maryams-family-tree
Included on Free to be Me: best inclusive books https://childrensbooksireland.ie/our-recommendations/free-to-be-me-2025
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One of 14 books chosen for September 2025 list