I loved this book so much! I really related with Amina (I'm not Pakistani but I totally understand the feeling of being suspended between two identites). It was also so nice to the platonic friendships (I love romance but sometimes it's nice to read a book without it).
Overall, this is a fantastic book. It was so wholesome, and I definintely would love to return to Amina's world

4 STARS

Beautiful follow up to Amina's Voice.
Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A companion novel to Amina's voice, this book begins while Amina is in Pakistan. When returning back home, Amina chooses Malala Yousafzai as the focus for her wax museum project for school. After realizing her classmates are completely focused on the wrong parts of Malala's story, Amina must find a way to show them what is truly important. She thinks about teaming up with her classmate Nico who makes awesome beats. Will this partnership and creating an original song help Amina show her classmates what really matters? This the perfect book for middle grade. The vulnerability of the middle grade reader that believes they can solve anything with enough effort and this project is one the would resonate with many. Amina's ongoing grit and perseverance makes this a wonderful read and recommendation.

The publisher Simon and Schuster generously provided me with a copy of the book upon request on NetGalley. The rating, ideas and opinions shared are my own.

Companion to Amina’s voice. Amina is visiting her family in Pakistan. She has spent the summer with them and learning all about her culture. Enjoying the food, clothing, people and the sites. Now school has started and she has gone back home. She wants to share everything she has experienced with her friends but she is disappointed that they don’t seem very interested. Amina decides to do a presentation on Malala. She wants her friends to see the beauty of the country the way she saw it.

Very beautifully written. Khan's words describes artfully what Pakistan looks like and what it is like for the people living there and also for people visiting. She also skillfully portrayed how Amina felt when her friends didn't show any interest in her trip to the country of her ancestors and how they didn't care that it held a special place in her heart.

Great sequel - if I was still in an elementary library I would definitely purchase this book. My students loved Amina

I ended up doing audio for this one, and the time flew by. The book starts with Amina and her family visiting extended family in Pakistan and then follows Amina back home to the start of a new school year with new challenges.

I appreciated how Khan wrote Amina's frustration with her friends when they didn't seem to care as much about her experiences in Pakistan as much as she did, but in a thoughtful way. It wasn't that her friends were being cruel, it's just that they didn't see it as momentous as she did. I also liked that unlike a lot of second-generation plot lines, Amina was excited about her time in Pakistan and wasn't just pining for her everyday life in America.

From a sheer enjoyment standpoint this wasn't my favorite middle grade book, but I'm also not the intended audience to consume this book. I would definitely recommend it to any young reader who is looking to find their way and to give back to their community in a way that feels authentic to them.

Didn't capture my attention and engagement. Interested in trying it again though and hopefully it will take.

Amina's Song is an engaging and entertaining book that teaches respect for other cultures while wrapping the reader's heart around the story. Amina wrestles with friendships going in different directions, family dynamics, and missing family that is far away. It is easy to relate to the main characters and understand their struggles. I will be reading this aloud to my 4th, 5th, and 6th graders because it will spark some deep discussions and because this story takes place in Wisconsin, where we live. Who doesn't love some Kopp's frozen custard?? This book is sure to be a winner!

Wasn't the biggest fan of the plot. It's creative but I felt like there was something missing to make the plot more interesting. To me, there was not much to it and some parts were a bit slow. It was an okay read for me.

This was such a heartwarming story that my daughter and I both loved! I didn’t get a chance to read her first in the series book but I will now! Full of culture, empathy and hope!
Your kids need this book in their lives.

This story was heart-touching but thought-provoking at the same time. How we tend to form our opinions about things based on one or two news, rumors, which makes us even more prejudiced. How a girl named Amina chose Malala Youzufzai as her role model, but the people surrounding her could not see beyond the taliban. Amina being a compassionate human being is determined to show the beauty of her culture and heritage. A great story that I'm not going to forget anytime soon.

Amina returns to America after a month long visit with her extended family in Pakistan. While in Pakistan she misses a lot of her "American favorites" and when she returns how, she misses a lot of what became normal when she was visiting Pakistan. Amina's friends don't seem to care or want to know about her experiences abroad and when she does a school project on her personal hero Malala Yousafzai she is upset that they focus on the wrong parts of the story.

Helen Khan does a great job of bringing to life the struggle first born generation Americans feel. The pull between two cultures. She makes this life accessible for those of us who take for granted our "Americaness" which allows us to blend in no matter where we find ourselves. This book is perfect for readers who like a slower, character driven book. Good for class discussions or parent-child book clubs.

I loved this even more than Amina’s Voice! I love all of the real middle school troubles Amina starts to face, and how she handles them in such plausible ways. Hena Khan is such a delightful writer and human, and I am so glad to have another book featuring Amina!

Reading this book was everything I didn't know I needed when I picked it up last week. Fast paced, educative but not-in-your-face kinda way; this book is serving close-knit family relationships, friendships in all its beautiful forms, knowledge on Palestine and an adorable protagonist. ⁣
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I didn't need to have read Amina's Voice before I could enjoy this one. It is a matter-of-fact story shedding light on the fact the media is crazy and not everything you see is the reality of those the media is writing about. This is so much important as we could see all that has been happening with the Palestinians. ⁣
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On sorting emotions, I love how Hena Khan didn't hold back on showing how Amina was feeling and helping her walk through them. ⁣
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Yes, I totally recommend this one.

Amina's Song is beautifully written sequal to Amina's Voice. I did not know this was a sequal, and did not feel I was missing anything from the first book. This is a great stand-alone, and makes me want to go back and read Amina's Voice.

The book begins with Amina on vacation with her family in Pakistan and growing to love this country despite all the bad things she has heard on the news in the United States. She is given a mission by her uncle to share the beauty and love of Pakistan with people in the US, a charge she takes very seriously. Throughout the book Amina tries to balance her love of both countries while dispelling rumors and myths of how awful Pakistan is by sharing her experiences through music and stories.

This was a very emotional and educating experience to see how people with multiple cultural backgrounds balance love of countries, culture, religions, and the desire to share that love with others. Hena Khan does an excellent job addressing hard topics with a middle grade POV. The innocence behind Amina's desire for all to love without prejudice is very moving.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon Schuster publishing for an ARC. The thoughts and opinions of this review are my own.

Hello, Hi, How are you?

I am so excited to finally be talking about Amina’s Song. I first book up this book several months ago, as the book, I would read it in between classes. I would pick it up for five minutes here and there and recently the school year ended for me but I still had about twenty pages left of this book! I really wanted to finish it because I was enjoying the story so, I decided to try and finish it one Saturday on the couch before diving back into my current read (which I believe at the time was Hand on the Wall). I was able to finish off the last twenty pages as I drank my morning tea and I have to say I really enjoyed this book (also I had no idea that there was another book in this universe, like a sequel)!

SPOILERS AHEAD

Amina and her family (her mom, dad, and brother) spent the summer visiting family in Pakistan. Amina, her brother, and her mom return to America just a few days before school starts while her dad returned earlier due to work. This is Amina’s first time in Pakistan but she is loving every minute of it! She is learning so many things, seeing new things, and getting to spend a lot of time with her cousins and aunts and uncles. However, once Amina is home things are changing and changing fast. Her friends are not really interested in learning about Pakistan and she is starting a new grade with lots of new club and activity options. On her first day back to school, she learns, that she has to do a history project, where she can pick any person in history and she has to learn all about this person and represent them in front of everyone later in the school year. Amina is not sure who she is going to pick but she is excited about the project!

I really enjoyed Amina’s story and I definitely think I will pick up the other book! Everyone from Amina, to her family (even her extended family in Pakistan) and her friends were characters that I loved and I really enjoyed getting to spend time with in this story. Throughout the story Amina and her family, often volunteer in various ways in the community and help to set up apartments for new families, this was such an amazing aspect, and I loved seeing Amina’s perspective on it! Additionally, Amina’s passion for her family and Pakistan really shone through in this story and was something I absolutely enjoyed reading! I can not wait to see where Amina’s story might go next (especially for her and Nico)!

Goodreads Rating: 5 Stars

Amina's Song is such a beautiful book. I read Amina's Voice sometime ago and I was so glad to find out that there was a sequel.

I love that this book reads well as a standalone, so people who haven't read Amina's Voice won't have a hard time getting into it.

The book covers themes and topics relating to race, religion, tradition, friendships, family, and a sense of belonging.

This book kicks off with Amina's last days of vacation to Pakistan and how it's been an eye opening journey for her. The news about Pakistan in the USA had made her scared to visit, but she ends up having a good time.

Most of the book is Amina trying to balance her missing Pakistan with being American, especially with a school project that centers around Pakistani heroes.

This was very emotional and educative and I love how creative and awesome Amina is as a character. Her singing is also a plot point here and her friends from book one are a major part of this book.

I love how the author deals with heavy and hard topics using a middle grade voice and does it in a way that the target audience will resonate with.

✨ ✨

Books to read if you enjoyed this one

1- Amal Unbound - Aisha Saeed - If you're in the mood for more:
Middle grade with Arab rep

2- A Thousand Questions - Saadia Faruqi - If you're in the mood for more:
Middle grader visiting Pakistan

3- Other Words for Home - Jasmine Warga - If you're in the mood for more:
Muslim middle grade partly set in a school

4- Amina's Voice - Hena Khan - If you're in the mood for more:
Amina and her friends and family

✨ ✨

The book centered around Amina's struggle, as a middle-schooler in America with Paksitani background. Middle-school is when children begin to be more aware of themselves and struggle to 'fit in'. Similarly Amina faced challenges because she didn't feel like she could identify with either of these nationalities. She didn't know Urdu well so she felt it hindered her relationship with her relatives in Pakistan. While among her American friends, she could not talk about Pakistan openly because of it's negative image. This is one of the themes I've read in various books and seen authors fail to express correctly whereas Hena Khan competently portrayed Amina's internal conflicts without overdoing it.

Hena Khan expertly penned down what many others have tried and failed; portraying a good image of Pakistan. I've read books full of mockery of Pakistan in the name of portraying a positive image. This one though was a refreshing read to get a realistic perspective of what it's really like.

My favourite part by far was Amina's project. She was determined to show a good side of Pakistan and she managed to give an insight about women of Pakistan in the most clever and creative way as a middle-schooler.

Another thing I greatly appreciated about this book was while religion was not the main aspect of it, Hena Khan didn't have to make Amina 'rebel' against religion or family just to make a point which seems to be a common theme for most of the books like this. She proved that points can be made and messages can be conveyed without mockery of any group.

Also, I wasn't aware of the first book until I sat down to write this review but I didn't feel like I missed any parts so this can be read as a standalone as well.

This happens to be a sequel to Amina’s Voice which I haven’t read but all the same this felt like a stand-alone for me.

Summary
Amina, a Pakistani-American spends her summer holidays in Pakistan and promises her uncle to share how wonderful Pakistan is with her friends.
New year, new beginnings, Amina gets the opportunity to work on a history project and chooses to be Malala and a couple of Pakistani women who made history and changed the world in their own small way:
•Malala Yousafzai;
•Benazir Bhutto;
•Samina Baig;
•Ayesha Farooq; and
•Zohra Khokar.
With this project she is able to use her voice to keep her promise and make Pakistan proud.

Five things:
Family
Friendship
Religion
Immigrants
Identity

I really loved this even though I haven’t read the first book.
Thanks for the eARC

This was just as moving and wonderful as the first book. I will definitely keep reading anything Hena Khan writes!