Reviews

Amina's Voice by Hena Khan

allicatca's review against another edition

4.0

Liked this but didn't love it. I learned a good amount about Islam and Pakistani Muslims and Urdu. I appreciated the voice of the young girls who are both non-white and how difficult it can be to the only kids at school who are of different ethnicities.

The story "cleans" up quickly, too quickly... almost as if the last chapter is an epilogue.

The funniest part of the book, in my opinion, is when Amina's best friend asks what name she LOOKS LIKE. My 10-year-old daughter does that

vatodd's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

It was wonderful. I little juvenile but to be expected as it is a children's book. The 2nd half did speed up and resonated with me greatly. Explored many themes I think everyone could learn to explore. 

sumayyaha's review against another edition

3.0

I can say that I liked this book, didn't love it but liked it. As a Muslim, I thought some of the things like nitpicking rules to follow was degrading. However, I loved how involved Amina's community was in helping when the mosque was vandalized. If you have any doubts, you should pick it up.

laura_corsi's review against another edition

4.0

Oh boy! Middle school is tough. I mean you remember it as being tough but with some distance you convince yourself that you were silly to take it all so seriously. Amina's dilemmas brought back all my middle school angst with friend groups changing and feeling so self-conscious all the time. Add-on that Amina is a Muslim daughter of first generation immigrants from Pakistan and you begin to understand the difficulties this girl of 12 is facing. Beautiful but I did not find it as relaxing as I had hoped. These are some serious issues told so that middle graders can understand.

reader4evr's review against another edition

5.0

What a lovely book! I really enjoyed this. I think Amina is very relatable and I love her family. I like how the book addressed the bullying that she got when she was younger and how in the end everything worked out. If students want a happy ending book, they should read this.

My only negative about the book is I wish the author had put in a dictionary section in the back with what some of the phrases meant. I got what some of them were just by context clues but maybe a kid wouldn't take the time to look it up.

bookph1le's review against another edition

3.0

This was a nice book that weaves some complicated, confusing, middle-grade type problems in with it: friendship drama, worries about secular life conflicting with religious beliefs, cultural differences, the idea that people can change and become better versions of themselves, dealing with adversity, etc. I didn't feel like the book was *too* packed, but I also didn't feel like it was able to dive as deeply into some of these issues as I might have liked. Still, I'm glad books like this exist and hope more and more stories like this will be published, both because kids who share Amina's culture and experiences deserve their own stories and because kids who don't benefit from learning tolerance for and appreciation of people whose belief systems and experiences as Americans aren't the same as theirs.

bibliobrandie's review against another edition

3.0

I enjoyed this story of Amina, a young girl who is dealing with a lot of changes as she enters middle school. Her best friend, Soojin, wants to hang out with the "cool girls" and also wants to change her name. Amina also wonders if her singing goes against her religion (her uncle thinks it does even though her parent tell her they don't think it does) and then her mosque is vandalized. Amina's story touches on family, friendships, feelings of belonging and not belonging, as well as Islamophobia. The author says that while she was writing the book, Islamophobia was already firmly rooted in America. Headlines shared tragic events, including mosque attacks, Quran burnings, and a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, which is what she chose as the setting for the novel. I think this is an important book for students to read and I hope they'll read it with someone so they can talk about it. I think this appeals to a younger middle grade audience, like 4th and 5th.

gracepizza40's review against another edition

3.0

3.0
This book should be longer. It's kind of rushed and it feels a bit hollow. If the book was more full and had more substance in it would have been better. I like that there was racism presented even if they made me so mad because non-POC readers can better understand what we have to go through. It's so gross and unfair. Also, Emily never felt bad or apologized for making fun of Soojin's food

Spoiler

(and she was enjoying Asian food a lot at the end! ugh.)

. I wished they didn't just brush that off after Amina thought Emily was okay. Emily is still annoying.

Spoiler

I'm glad Soojin kept her name. Susan is such an adult-sounding name and it doesn't match Soojin too.

I hope the next book is much better.

Before reading:
I don't really remember a lot about the book but I remember it was not as good as I expected haha
I'm going to read it again soon :D

sarahreadsbooks33's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

bookrecsondeck's review against another edition

Stopped reading after 30 minutes because it didn’t keep my interest