Amina's Voice

"Good story about family, friends, and faith, but a little too many story lines."

"I appreciated this middle grade contemporary fiction account of Amina, a young girl who struggles with cultural differences, fitting in, finding identity and more. Her Muslim culture has made it hard for her to make friends in the past, even though she can relate to her peers easily, having been raised most her life in the US. She's about as American as any other kid at school, yet she feels like her differences make her stand out. As she struggles to find balance between her school life and her home and religious life, she learns to find the courage to be true to herself and use her talents to find her own identity.<br/><br/>At one point, a significant hate crime is committed against Amina's Muslim community, and it was touching to see how the interfaith community responded the their needs and how they worked together to bless each other. It left the reader feeling hopeful that we can worked to understand each other and have a more positive future, co-existing with others in our society who believe differently.<br/><br/>One thing that would have improved the book was to have explanations within the text, or footnotes, in which the author explains cultural terms, words and sayings, and other aspects such as clothing items intrinsic to the Muslim culture, but not familiar to most American middle grade audiences. Yes, we can go look them up on the internet, but realistically, not many children will set the book down to go and do that."