In ihrem Entscheidungsschreiben begrünndeten die Mitglieder des Ausschusses, Leyla Neyzi, Nancy L. Stockdale und Shahram Khosravi die Auszeichnung wie folgt:

"All committee members agreed that Nazan Maksudyan’s book was impeccably written, highly readable, without the jargon that often accompanies academic tomes, providing both a new approach to the study of children and a new approach to working in and interpreting archives. This is simply a wonderful book that will be of interest not only to academics working on the Middle East but to a wide range of scholars across disciplines and regions with an interest in the study of children and childhood."