Middle Grade Book Review: Amina´s Voice by Hena Khan

I love middle grade books with a multicultural touch because it helps me to understand a world where children can freely share and assume their identities - ethnic, religious particularly. 

Amina´s Voice by Hena Khan is about the life of an American-Pakistani faily living in Greendale, Milwaukee, in the USA. A place where different religions and denominations are coming along together and the schools share the usual diversity we associate with the American dream. All went well until one night someone vandalized the local mosque, but the action proved the strength of the community against any form of extremism. A planed Qu´ran reading competition will be hosted in a Presbyterian church and everyone will help to rebuild the destroyed mosque. ´We all have to stick together in times like this´ is an optimistic message of unity against extremism. We will not know who exactly attached the Muslim center, but the solidarity aftermath is more important for the overall message of the book.

The author focuses on the positive experiences and the efforts towards a middle-path of living and practising the identity, particularly the religion. Even Bhai Jaan, Amina´s uncle visiting from Pakistan which favors a stricter way of Muslim life will be in the end convinced to tolerate a girl singing in public. 

Amina and his brother Mustafa are a projection of how a second generation practising Muslim immigrants in America can be. Accomodating other people´s identity and accepting who you are - as Amina´s friend and colleague, the Korean-born Soojin who wants to take an American-sounding name after naturalization - is a challenge at any age, particularly in the pre-teens years. 

I appreciated the simplicity in portraying the inner family dynamics and how both parents are both commited to respect their traditions in a way which accommodates and respects other people´s identities. The voices who count in this book are children´s and the adults are mostly the regulative background who may allow or challenge their behavior, but largely in a mildly, not dramatic tensed way. Therefore, the book is both useful for children and their parents, both with a multicultural background and just curious to learn about other cultures and communities as well as about how co-existence may look like in a democracy.

Rating: 3.5 stars