Amina's Voice is a delightful middle grade that focuses on the universal story of self-acceptance and the acceptance of others. Amina Khokar is a Pakistani-American tween who is navigating the troubled waters of junior high. Amina is musically gifted, a talent that only her family and close friends know. She bonds with her best friend, Soojin, with having weird names that no one can pronounce and similar family traditions. Amina is now worried that her friendship with Soojin might be on the rocks. Now that Soojin is about to be granted citizenship, she is thinking about leaving her Korean name and adopting a much easier to pronounce American name, which Amina has mixed feelings about. Amina is also unsure of Soojin being close to Emily, whom Amina distrusts and feels unworthy as friend given how she ill treated her and Soojin at the beginning of the school year.
In addition to the worries of school, Amina is also dealing with family issues. Amina's family is hosting her strict, conservative Muslim uncle, who is visiting Wisconsin from Pakistan and who will surely comment on her family's lifestyle in the United States and point out all of their flaws like not speaking Urdu at home or playing music at home. In addition to these mounting problems, Amina's parents sign her and her brother up in a competition to recite the Quran at their local mosque. Stage-fright-prone Amina prepares for the competition. The vandalism of the local Islamic Center and mosque further heightens the turmoil in this timely coming-of-age story.
What makes Amina's Voice work is the balance between ordinary problems like those of school and friendship and of religion and culture. Amina's responses to both problems are emotional and honest. We watch her grow, learn from her mistakes, and become a better person as realizes that she misjudged Emily. Confronting her preconceived notions is again reinforced on a larger scale as her community comes together in response to Islamophobic vandalism. The author also gracefully addresses the difficulty of reconciling individual beliefs with those of others, especially those you love, as well as the complications that accompany the merging of cultures.

Amina's Voice takes on some pretty big topics in a fairly short novel. That's admirable but it tends to feel oversimplified. Nothing is explored in any real depth. Changing friendships, stage fright, increasing responsibility, culture clash, and hate crimes all just get a surface exploration. All of these topics are deftly handled with realistic, likeable characters. There was simply a lot of missed opportunity to dig deeper, to explore motivations and repercussions. A decent read to introduce topics.

Summary: Now that Amina is in middle school, it feels like everything around her is changing. Her best friend Soojin has started hanging out with another girl and is considering changing her name to something more “American”, her dad’s brother is visiting them from Pakistan for the first time so she needs to be on her best behavior 24/7, she’s forced to participate in a Quran recitation competition at her local community center, and she desperately wants to participate in the Winter Choral Concert but is too shy to sign up for it. Meanwhile, tragedy strikes as their mosque is vandalized, leaving Amina and her community utterly devastated.

I haven’t read a lot of middle-grade fiction since well before middle grade ( I was the annoying kid that thought it was only cool to read ‘above’ her reading level and no adult told me otherwise), and it’s such a delight to pick them up and read them as an adult. Hena Khan has woven such a vibrant story with these babies at the heart of it, filled with warmth and leaving you with hope.

The first thing that struck me while reading this was how early in their lives non-white kids in the US and other white-majority countries begin to experience microaggressions and racial stigma. Their environment is made up of people that view them as “other”, including the white kids in their schools. Soojin’s story arc of wanting to change her name to one that would be easier for white Americans to pronounce particularly stayed with me. I didn’t even have to grow up in that kind of environment and three years of people in the States mispronouncing my name drove me batty, but to be a small kid whose environment moulds her into thinking the solution to the conundrum is assimilation (because of systemic white supremacy) is both rage-inducing and heart-breaking. I know a lot of people (in India) who make fun of desis in the States for shortening or changing their names, but they never ever take into consideration the extent of this name-fuckery that POC experience which lead to that decision.

There are a lot of relationships fleshed out and explored in the story- particularly the family ties. There is a familiar ring to the conversations among members of Amina’s family. I loved that Amina and her brother are very supportive of each other. Amina is still at the cusp of adolescence and by nature quieter, but her brother is thrust into the chaos of self-discovery with basketball and peers on the one side and his parents and their expectations n0t to abandon his culture on the other side. This was extremely relatable, especially in the context of Asian families, and I don’t think that dissonance between these cultural values and what my parents called “modern thinking” ever goes away. At the same time, the parents are not portrayed unfairly- they’re loving, caring, and a little strict, but have their kids’ best interests at heart. The arrival of Amina’s uncle throws some complications in their first-gen family, and their khaatirdhari (hospitality) is so familiar. Guests are considered an equivalent to god, so even with family members hosts will go out of their way to make sure their guests are respected and always comfortable.

Another thing that I was really glad to see was that Amina and her brother do not abhor or reject their culture. Often times second/third gen Asians are portrayed as rejecting, mocking or hating their cultures (said cultures are also portrayed as old-fashioned, whacky, or straight up weird), and this portrayal either seems like pandering to white people or just written from this white gaze. While Amina is probably a little too young and the typical rebellion we see against religion and culture is seen with older kids, it feels good to read about South Asians without the “backward” shadow. Culture and religion are complicated, and they’re a part and parcel of the Asian culture, so in reality it is almost impossible to disassociate from that without a thought. When crisis strikes with the mosque being vandalized, it is hard not experience horror at the event, especially with the story being built around Amina’s family and the extent to which their lives are tied to that community. However, it was encouraging to watch the community come together in the face of blatant Islamophobia, with the help of supportive allies, not to let the violent act tear them and whatever they’ve built down, leaving readers with hope at the end of it all.

The theme of identity and self-discovery are maintained throughout the book, and explored with the storylines of multiple characters. None of the characters were one-dimensional, and even with the multiple storylines, were written wholly human. This is a very empowering story, and exposing kids to stories like this one is very crucial if we’re to fortify them with the tools to be aware of diversity in experiences, backgrounds, and cultures and dismantle systemic bigotry.

This is book is about a girl finding her voice while trying to manage friendships and figure out how her Muslim and American cultures fit together. The book is also one that shows the power of community. Amina's experiences are relatable while also providing insight into a culture that some readers will be familiar with and others will learn from. This is a lovely book that will help grow compassion.

I was interested in reading this middle grade book because the main character is a Muslim girl living in America. I work at a school where we have some Muslim children, and I was excited to be able to offer them a book in which they could see themselves. Having read the book, I happily purchased it for both libraries where I work. While it is not the most earth-shatteringly creative piece of literature I have read, the characters lead everyday lives in our country and that, really, is the point. This girl is like any other 12 year-old girl, navigating American suburban family life and middle school fears and insecurities, just with an added dimension that her religion and her family history and culture are Muslim. The book was well-done, the characters seemed like real people, and I enjoyed having the chance to get to know them.

What a beautiful story of faith, friendship, courage and strength. I was impressed by the author's ability to develop the characters and make you see life through their perspective as opposed to your own. Reading the story of Amina' s joys and challenges and feeling the power of community was inspiring. I can't wait to book talk this one!

Now that Amina is in middle school, it seems everything is changing. Her best friend Soojin wants to hang out with Emily, a girl Amina remembers making fun of them in elementary school. Soojin wants to celebrate becoming an American citizen by changing her name, and she wants Amina to help her pick something “American.” Amina struggles to find her own place in the shifting world. Soojin encourages her to sing a solo for a chorus concert, but Amina worries she’ll freeze up and be unable to speak. Then she learns she’ll have to speak at a recitation of the Quran. She dreads the idea, especially when her very strict uncle from Pakistan volunteers to coach her the verses she’s selected to speak.

When her mosque is vandalized and the recitation canceled, Amina feels devastated. In the wake of the disaster, the community rallies around her, and she discovers that friendship crosses boundaries and survives changes, sometimes even flourishes because of them.

Post will go live 3/18/17 at 7am EDT
I heard about this book on Aisha Saeed’s blog where she recommended several books, including this one. I enjoyed reading about a practicing Muslim family and Amina’s struggle to balance her spiritual beliefs with other parts of her life. As a practicing Christian who grew up in public school, I remember facing some of the same kinds of challenges and having some of the same fears and concerns.

I loved that Amina’s best friend is a practicing Christian, too. Actually, during middle school, my best friend was a practicing Jew. I found that having deep spiritual commitment gave us a kind of common ground I wouldn’t have expected, because we both held deep belief and that sometimes held us apart from our classmates.
It’s funny... I hadn’t thought about what it would be like to watch that relationship as a parent (my parents loved my friend and clearly valued our friendship.) Now, as a parent of a child in a school district with a significant Muslim presence, I find I feel similarly. I would love for my daughter to have a friend like Amina, because I think having someone to share that feeling of otherness that comes from a deep faith and challenging each other to love across religious lines was one of the most valuable experiences I had as a middle school kid.

My own experience aside, I loved this book. It was easy to identify with Amina. She’s a good girl who wants to do right and struggles with fear and shyness. The story really delves into her understanding of friendship and community, issues common to all of us. I enjoyed the way her relationship with her parents, her brother, and her friends at school changed as she grew to see herself differently and began to explore her connection with her community more deeply.

If you’re looking for a story that exemplifies the power of coming together as a family and a community, this is a great pick. Amina’s Voice is also a good read for a shy child trying to find his or her place in the changing landscape of school transition.

Amina is a Pakistani-American girl whose story is one of a window that every student will be able to relate to. Her Muslim culture is interwoven through the story that makes it such a beautiful theme to follow, as well as relate to whether you are of her same culture or not. The diversity in the story provide several windows, but also several mirrors for students in middle grades. I absolutely will have this book in my classroom and make a point to share with those who have preconceived notions about Muslim children in the United States

While this book is primarily a "window" book for me since I'm not familiar with Pakistani culture, in some ways it was also a "mirror" book because I saw pieces of myself and my experiences in not only Soojin, Amina's Korean American friend (there are a lot of commonalities in how East Asian Americans navigate white-dominated spaces), but also Amina herself because she is a second generation child of immigrant parents.

Both Amina and Soojin experience a variety of racist microaggressions from their white peers, from food-related taunts to language-related stigmas. Prominent among these is the butchering of their names, something that I'm intimately familiar with. Soojin, who moved to the U.S. as a toddler and is about to become a citizen, plans to change her name to something that white Americans can easily pronounce. I had a period where I considered changing my name, so I empathized with her situation, though hindsight makes me glad I didn't go through with such a change. Amina feels off about this decision because she thinks Soojin's name is fine as it is, so she does what she can to communicate this validation to Soojin. This was very heartening to read, knowing how strong the pressure to assimilate into the white mainstream can be and how vulnerable kids like Soojin are to these pressures.

In general, the friendship between Amina and Soojin was a highlight of the story. Two Asian Americans sticking by each other is realistic and an important kind of solidarity to represent. On top of that, the story explores how friendships change over time as new people enter your friend circles. In this case, the "interloper" is a white girl named Emily, who Amina doesn't fully trust because of her history of perpetrating of some of the microaggressions I mentioned before. The distrust is mixed with feelings of jealousy and abandonment, and those feelings are addressed in a constructive way as the story progresses.

Another positive aspect of the story is Amina's relationships with her various family members. Her older brother has his own character arc and development as he joins the basketball team at his high school and deals with both parental pressure and peer pressure. Amina may not fully understand her brother, but she is supportive of him and stands up for him to their parents when they are being hard on him over his grades (which is something I will never get tired of seeing portrayed in fiction because seriously, grades aren't everything).

Amina's relationship with her parents is also a loving and supportive one. They may be somewhat strict, but they are not unfair or uncaring. To the contrary, her parents encourage her, guide her through her problems, and keep her connected to her culture, heritage, and religion.

Her relationship with her uncle who's visiting from Pakistan is a bit more complicated but dynamic. Her uncle is more traditional and conservative than her parents, so she has doubts about him liking her since she is Americanized in many ways. He becomes her tutor for reciting and learning Arabic from the Quran, and although she feels inadequate and self-conscious at first, she eventually begins to treat him more like a genuine mentor, developing a bond with him that also brings her closer to her faith.

One of my favorite things about this book was the depictions of everyday life at Sunday school and the Islamic Center. It's such a lovely space that's community-oriented and celebrates Islamic history and cultures with its displays and decorations. Everyone knows everyone else, and there are annual traditions and festivals that bring people together. You can tell that Amina feels very at home there. As I was reading about it, I couldn't help but think of the Taiwanese Community Center that my family frequents on the weekends because of the similarities in layout and the feeling of comfort and familiarity it evokes for me. Since the story builds up this atmosphere of home around the mosque and the Center, the subsequent vandalism left a deep impact on me. The trauma of loss weighed on me as if it were real, as if I were Amina witnessing the events. Thankfully, the aftermath of this dark event lifts you back up with hopeful messages.

The title of this book, Amina's Voice, has both literal and figurative meanings. The more literal interpretation is linked to Amina's love of music and singing. She is talented but has stage fright and struggles to sing or otherwise perform in front of an audience. The more figurative meaning is about her coming to terms with herself and her identity and being comfortable with who she is. These two themes and struggles are intertwined and resolved over the course of the story in an empowering way. The ending was perfect (in my opinion).

Recommendation: Highly recommended! A heartfelt story about friendship, family, and community.

An excellent story filled with the sorts of issues middle grade readers are most focused on - changing friendships, parental restrictions, having the courage to try new things and those first shaky steps to finding one's path. AND it also happens to have a Muslim-American character with her culture, faith and experiences worked into the story in a wonderfully natural way as just part of the story.

The first of a new imprint, Salaam, from S&S and very promisin

Amina has a beautiful voice but she freezes up in front of people. When her uncle comes to visit from Pakistan she worries that he will not approve of the American lifestyle or her music. She is also concerned about friendship issues and an upcoming competition. When their local mosque is vandalized Amina finds out who her true friends are and also finds her voice.

Nit picky stuff - the girl on the cover seems older than the character, the resolution seemed too quick and neat and I didn't feel that there was enough evidence leading up to her sudden change.

Amina, a young Pakistani-American girl struggles to live up to her family's Muslim beliefs and practices, while navigating life at school with its social pressures and friendships that seem to shift unexpectedly. When the Islamic Center the family attends is damaged in what is deemed a hate crime, various community groups come together in support. Amina, both literally and figuratively, finds her voice.

This novel provides a much needed look at the life of a young Muslim girl, the horrors of hate crimes, and the value of family and community.

Amina is a Pakistani-American who has just started middle school with her best friend, a Korean-American, Soojin. Soojin is applying for American citizenship and has decided to change her name to sound more American. Soojin’s sudden refutation of identity causes a rift between the friends, which is further widened as Emily, a student who used to make fun of their cultural differences, tries to befriend the girls. As if Amina does not face enough stress and new feelings of jealously already, her strong-willed uncle from Pakistan decides to visit, her teacher pressures her to sing in the school concert—Amina never sings in public—and her Sunday school teacher and parents force her to enter a Quran competition for the local Islamic Center. Just as things cannot get any worse, Amina accidentally shares Emily’s secret crush, causing a trivial fight with her friends, and the local Islamic Center and mosque is vandalized. Similar to the hate crime in It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel, Amina’s community, family, and friends are forced to reconcile their differences and pull together to physically and emotionally rebuild their home.

A middle grade read for fourth to seventh graders, Amina’s Voice addresses modern day issues about what it is like to grow up Muslim in America. Amina faces criticism from all sides, including her Pakistani relatives. As she continuously fights cultural barriers, she learns that she must also be more accepting and brave. Amina has her own flaws, which she must overcome. Similar to It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel, Amina’s Voice pulls readers into the story. How can you not cheer them along and want to embrace this supportive and tolerant community? The well-rounded characters face major personal growth, and although the plot slows for just a moment, collections can benefit from this multicultural read. I hope to see this new Muslim imprint publish many more timely, intuitive, and relatable novels for school-aged children and tweens.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Salaam Reads/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Amina Khokar, a Pakistani American Muslim girl living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has just started sixth grade in middle school and already she is wishing she were back in elementary school. Everything feels different. To begin with, her best friend, Korean-born Soojin Park is about to become a citizen and is thinking about changing her Korean name for something more American. And no sooner has school begun, but Soojin begins to hang out with Emily. Emily had been friends with Julie, and the two of them used to make fun of Soojin and Amina in elementary school. While Soojin seems to accept Emily, Amina is have a lot of difficulty with her hanging around with them. It doesn't take long for a misunderstanding between Soojin and Amina to make them stop speaking.

To add to Amina's stress, she is told that her great uncle is coming for a three month visit from Pakistan, and Thaya Jaan is a very strict Muslim. What will he think of their American ways, and the music Amina loves to play on the piano? It doesn't take long to find out when Amina overhears a conversation between her father and uncle, who tells him that music is forbidden on Islam, and she should be focusing on memorizing Quran.

Meanwhile, older brother Mustafa has been acting up, his grades went way down in middle school and all he seems interested in is texting his friends or watching TV.Now in high school, Mustafa wants to try out for the basketball team, much to his parents chagrin. Mama and Baba have definite ideas about what their children's accomplishments should be and basketball isn't one of them.

But the Quran recitation competition to be held at their Islamic Center is exactly what Mama and Baba have in mind for Amina and Mustafa, and should please Thaya Jaan, who is quite knowledgeable of the Quran and willing to help his niece and nephew practice their Urdu pronunciation.

There's only one problem - Amina can speak in public, she simply freezes up. Which is a shame, considering that she plays the piano so well, has perfect pitch, a beautiful singing voice and more than anything wants to perform in public.

Amina already has a lot on her plate but when vandals destroys her beloved Islamic Center, she learns to true meaning of family, friendship, and community. When the Park's Presbyterian church offers to hold the Quran competition and the Islamic Center's annual carnival, will Amina be able to find her voice and recite the surah (chapter) she had chosen from the Quran for the competition?

Amina's Voice is one of the first novels to come out of the new Simon & Schuster imprint Salaam Reads. I found it to be timely, interesting and a charming coming of age story. Khan has seamlessly incorporated aspects of Amina's life as a young Pakistani American Muslim girl living in a mostly white community. Her family is loving, supportive, and warm, though her brother a little rebellious, after all, he is a teen. Even the strict uncle is not an unmovable, judgmental force that one meets so often in novels where religion plays a major part in everyday life. He is actually quite warm and loving as well. All this makes the novel a very believable and very relatable story that readers who are not Muslim can also relate to, especially those who go to Sunday School in church where there were lots of family activities to bring people together (I still love a good potluck supper).

Khan has given Amina a really genuine voice, always reflective of her age, her circumstances, and her emotions. She is, however, a nicely flawed middle grader. Her problems don't just revolve around her religion, but also her friends and especially her difficulty in accepting Emily, and her jealousy when she sees Soojin and Emily growing closer and dealing with her feelings of being left out.

I can't recommend Amina's Voice highly enough and I can't wait to see what the future holds for the Salaam Reads imprint.

Amina's Voice will be available on March 14, 2017

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was an EARC received from NetGalley

“Amina’s Voice” presents a very enjoyable story of an 11-year-old Pakistani-American Muslim girl in Milwaukee, and is a welcome addition to my middle grade collection. While my opinion of the book isn’t based on it being set in my home state of Wisconsin, it doesn’t hurt either, as it makes the topic even more relatable to my students from a very small rural community who have little exposure to Muslim culture. Khan does an excellent job of weaving Amina’s friendship and family struggles within the story about faith and heritage, and treats the potentially-disturbing events involving a hate crime with middle-grade-appropriate sensitivity. While the story wraps up a bit more neatly than real life similar events do, it is a reassuring note for students that one act of hate does not necessitate a loss of hope. Hena Khan is also the author of a new-to-me favorite picture book, “Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns: A Muslim Book of Colors” which I introduced to all K-5 students in my library recently, followed by great discussions spurred by students.

This book started off as a typical man dole school fish out of water and I'm losing my best friend sort of story, but with Korean and Islamic best friends.

From there it grew to be so much more. We got inside Amina's head and saw how she wanted to honor Her Islamic faith but be true to her live if music. At one point her uncle, visiting from Pakistan, says that music is haram, forbidden, and Amina over hears and stops singing and playing the piano though she loves it. That made me cry.

<spoiler>the other time I cried was when the mosque was vandalized
</spoiler>

Good book for middle schoolers and up. Good because it shows people's differences as well as similarities.




Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review

Thank you for this book. Unfortunately, since it is not in kindle format, I am unable to read it.