Hollins has honored Vietnamese author Mu̕ọ̕n Thị Văn as the winner of the seventh annual Margaret Wise Brown Prize in Children’s Literature.

Mu̕ọ̕n received an engraved medal and a $1,000 cash prize for Wishes, illustrated by Victo Ngai and published by Orchard Books. Inspired by events in the author’s life, Wishes is the story of a Vietnamese family’s search for a new home on the other side of the world and how that impacts one of the family’s youngest members.

“Mu̕ọ̕n Thị Văn takes the reader on a heart-wrenching journey, from leaving the familiarity of home to navigating the perils of an ocean voyage to finally arriving at a place of hope and new beginnings,” stated the judges for this year’s prize.

Hollins established the Margaret Wise Brown Prize as a way to pay tribute to one of its best-known alumnae and one of America’s most beloved children’s authors. The cash prizes are made possible by an endowed fund created by James Rockefeller, Brown’s fiancé at the time of her death. It is one of the few children’s book awards that has a cash prize attached.