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anaayaalam's review against another edition
“is this fucking play about us?”
this is a true five star duet in my heart
this is a true five star duet in my heart
niharsatsangi's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
katiegrrrl's review against another edition
4.0
What a great sequel!
2022 YMA Asian/Pacific American Children’s Literature Award winner
2022 YMA Asian/Pacific American Children’s Literature Award winner
jenlovesbooks's review against another edition
4.0
Thanks to Partners NetGalley, Salaam Reads, and Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers for the digital ARC of Hena Khan’s Amina’s Song in exchange for an honest review.
Hena Khan’s Amina’s Song, the sequel to Amina’s Voice, begins in the summer after book one, when Amina and her family are visiting their relatives in Pakistan before she begins seventh grade. Amina feels braver after having mustered her courage both to recite the Quran and sing in front of a crowd, but she’s still working on figuring out what is most important: she wants to say and to whom.
Amina absolutely loves her extended family, including her uncle, who visited the United States when she was in sixth grade (that’s in Amina’s Voice), and her cousin Zohra, who is an amazing guide to the community and culture of her parents’ home country. It’s while she’s still visiting that Amina begins to work through the way we think about other places: she had been afraid to travel because of stories about Pakistan that she heard on the news. When she talks to Zohra about visiting Amina’s home, she finds that Zohra feels the same way, afraid of visiting the U.S. because of similar reports of violence and discrimination.
When Amina returns home, feeling utterly changed, she finds that her friends seem to be the same and are uninterested in exploring what Amina has discovered about herself. She wants to share and to work through her complicated questions, but she’s either brushed aside or met with resistance.
What I love about both of these books centers on Amina herself. She is (as many middle schoolers are) working through some big questions: Can people change? How do we share what’s most important to us with the people we love? What does it mean to be someone’s friend? How do we share our pride in a country or community while also acknowledging its faults? What does it mean to be a good person? These are questions that I hope my own children consider, and I love that Khan is presenting them in a narrative that is both compelling and relatable for a middle-school audience.
While I do think that Amina’s Song could work as a standalone, I highly recommend both books: do yourself a favor and pick up both Amina’s Voice and Amina’s Song!
Hena Khan’s Amina’s Song, the sequel to Amina’s Voice, begins in the summer after book one, when Amina and her family are visiting their relatives in Pakistan before she begins seventh grade. Amina feels braver after having mustered her courage both to recite the Quran and sing in front of a crowd, but she’s still working on figuring out what is most important: she wants to say and to whom.
Amina absolutely loves her extended family, including her uncle, who visited the United States when she was in sixth grade (that’s in Amina’s Voice), and her cousin Zohra, who is an amazing guide to the community and culture of her parents’ home country. It’s while she’s still visiting that Amina begins to work through the way we think about other places: she had been afraid to travel because of stories about Pakistan that she heard on the news. When she talks to Zohra about visiting Amina’s home, she finds that Zohra feels the same way, afraid of visiting the U.S. because of similar reports of violence and discrimination.
When Amina returns home, feeling utterly changed, she finds that her friends seem to be the same and are uninterested in exploring what Amina has discovered about herself. She wants to share and to work through her complicated questions, but she’s either brushed aside or met with resistance.
What I love about both of these books centers on Amina herself. She is (as many middle schoolers are) working through some big questions: Can people change? How do we share what’s most important to us with the people we love? What does it mean to be someone’s friend? How do we share our pride in a country or community while also acknowledging its faults? What does it mean to be a good person? These are questions that I hope my own children consider, and I love that Khan is presenting them in a narrative that is both compelling and relatable for a middle-school audience.
While I do think that Amina’s Song could work as a standalone, I highly recommend both books: do yourself a favor and pick up both Amina’s Voice and Amina’s Song!
reading_rachel's review against another edition
4.0
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!
harperv28's review against another edition
5.0
Thank you to Netgalley for the e-ARC of this book. I enjoyed this book just as much a maybe even a little more than the first book, Amina's Voice. I liked that it delved deeper into Amina's story. This book does a wonderful job of building on the first. We get to know even more about her, her family, and her friends. We also meet some new characters. I like that we get to know even more about Pakistan and Amina's culture. I also like that we feel even more of a sense of community from the characters. I think it also helps readers learn more about Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai, and even other important Pakistani women.
roots_and_reads's review against another edition
4.0
Love everything Hena Kahn writes— a lovely sequel to Amina’s Voice! Great story centered around family and helping community.
lightqueer's review against another edition
4.0
i was so happy to see that amina and her family's story was going to continue in this book! once again, hena khan has created an atmosphere of family, childish wonder, and culture. seeing amina and her thaya jaan's new relationship after the challenges they both faced in amina's voice was so satisfying and refreshing. a lovely and warm read overall.
msghani's review against another edition
5.0
If there's such a thing as a perfect sequel, Amina's Song is it. It's a beautiful follow-up to Amina's Voice about discovering how to love and honor all the individual parts of your identity.