“Amina’s Voice” by Hena Khan
Salaam Reads, New York, 2017, 197 pages, Grades 4-6.
When children enter the middle school years, many things begin to happen. Their bodies change. They aren’t children and they are not yet adults. Most feel awkward and many feel unattractive. They need friends and acceptance to help them begin bridging the gap through the teen years.
Hena Khan has written a touching novel about a Pakistani-American girl, Amina, coming to grips with these issues. If these physical and emotional changes are not enough, Amina must also deal with her parents’ old-country attitudes while trying to integrate her Islamic religious beliefs in contemporary America. Khan shows us Amina struggling with self-acceptance issues as she must live in two worlds. The first is her parents’ Pakistani value system. The second is the value system of present-day America. It is a very complicated process.
Amina Khokar nervously begins the sixth grade. Her closest friend is Soojin Park and both girls avidly watch American television shows where amateurs try to win large prizes. Amina’s parents came to the United States to study and decided to remain here. They became naturalized citizens. Amina and her brother Mustafa were both born in the United States. Amina’s parents just don’t get American customs and this constantly embarrasses both children.
Like many immigrating parents, the Khokars want their children to be highly successful in the United States, but want them to retain Pakistani cultural values. This places the children in a sort of never-never land. Now that Amina is in middle school, she wants to be accepted by the girls in her class.
Soojin had been her friend for years and soon will take her citizenship test. As a result, Soojin makes every attempt to be as American as can be. That year at school, another girl, Emily, begins a friendship with Soojin. This creates jealousy in Amina as this relationship begins to grow.
Emily tells the two girls that she has a crush on a boy in their class. But romantic feelings are also new to Emily, so she swears Soojin and Amina to silence. Amina breaks her promise and tells a boy in her class about Emily’s feelings. Soon the boys are calling out to Emily in the lunchroom and thoroughly crushing Emily’s emotions. In short order, Emily and Soojin find out that Amina has broken her promise and become hostile toward her.
Confused and hurt, Amina now runs into problems at home as well, when her Pakistani uncle tells her that her music and singing violates the Quran. Her parents tell her this is not so, but Amina now feels trapped between a series of value systems. After Amina’s father signs her up for a public recitation of the Quran, their mosque is partially destroyed by vandals. This is shattering for Amina. But Soojin arranges for the recitation to happen at her Christian church. Amina doesn’t know if she has the strength to go to the recital. But she gathers herself. What does she do?
Khan tells the story of teenage self-acceptance in a dual cultural setting very accurately. As well, the author describes the generous assistance given by people of all religions to rebuild the damaged mosque. This book is likely to be more attractive for girls because of its many interior dialogues and its centering on issues faced by girls in the middle grades. Amina’s brother Mustafa’s assertion to his parents that he acts like an American because he is an American sums up the cultural divide in immigrant families. Amina’s brave choices in the book are very admirable.
“Amina’s Voice” was an Honor Book winner in the Charlotte Huck Medal given each year for books demonstrating compassion and courage. It is a fine read and I hope you encourage a family member to check the book out of the library and read it.
