Amina's Song by Hena Khan

Amina Khokar is in the final days of her visit to Lahore, Pakistan with her older brother, Mustafa and  mother. Amina and her family decided to visit Pakistan after Thaya Jaan became ill earlier in the year. Amina is at the Anarkali Bazaar hoping to purchase some gifts for her friends back home in Greendale, Wisconsin. After her cousin Zohra bargains with the shopkeepers for various items, Amina and Mustafa travel by rickshaw to Wazir Khan Mosque where they meet Mama and Amina's uncle Thaya Jaan. Being in the mosque which was built by the Emperor Shah Jahan reminds Amina of her mosque back home and how it had to be shut down for six months after it was vandalized. Thaya Jaan tells Amina's family that people who do bad things are not often evil but misguided.

At her uncles home, in the evening, Amina and Zohra sit on the rooftop terrace. Amina invites Zohra and her brother Ahmed to visit during the winter but Zohra isn't keen to do so, because she feels she won't be welcome there.

When it is time to leave, Thaya Jaan makes Amina promise to show Americans "the beauty of Pakistan".  

As Amina struggles to acclimatize to life at home, she feels her friends aren't much interested in her experiences in Pakistan.

Determined to show her friends and classmates that Pakistan is more than what they hear on the news, Amina decides to focus on Malala Yousafzai. But when her first presentation leaves the wrong impression, Amina struggles to figure out how she can show the beauty of the Pakistan she loves so much.

Discussion

Amina's Song is the sequel to Khan's first novel, Amina's Voice. It picks up where the first novel left off with Amina and her family visiting family in Lahore, Pakistan. Amina experiences internal conflict as she becomes more comfortable with life in Pakistan learning to appreciate the city of Lahore and her Pakistani rootse. At the same time, Amina feels lost.

In Pakistan with her relatives, Amina struggles to fit in. "It becomes obvious that I don't quite fit in with my relatives, although the same blood runs through my veins. I don't share their language, their sense of humor, or their memories. When someone busts out with an expression, or a line of poetry, and everyone chimes in with a laugh or comment, I can't help but feel like an impostor, or a shapeshifter who appears to be a regular Pakistani girl on the outside but doesn't know how to act like one."

Amina wants to stay longer in Pakistan and learn Urdu. Her feelings are further conflicted when her cousin, Zohra refuses to visit America because she's "not wanted", leaving Amina hurt.  "She's talking about my country, the one that's a part of me and made me who I am." She reminds Zohra that there is good and bad everywhere. 

Back in America, this internal conflict continues but in a different way; Amina feels that her friends do not appreciate her culture and show little interest in what she experienced over the summer.

As a way to keep her promise to Thaya Jaan, Amina decides to focus on Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai for her class's Living Wax Museum assignment. However, after her first presentation on Malala, leaves her classmates believing that girls in Pakistan have no rights, Amina is embarrassed. Her brother Mustafa points out that people know only what they hear about a country and he reminds Amina how she was afraid to visit Pakistan.

Khan thus sets the stage for the main character to inform her young American readers about some of the contributions Pakistani women have made to their country, demonstrating that Pakistan is more than what they might hear on the news or read on the internet. As well, Amina's Baba explains that each country has its own challenges. "Every culture has shameful parts of its history and groups of people who do things that are wrong. Pakistan is no better or worse."

Khan also portrays some of the struggles an American-born child of immigrants might face, growing up in a culture with very different values. For example, Amina's mother is strict about the clothing her daughter wears to school, not allowing Amina nor her brother to wear clothing that is ripped or has holes. Amina has to convince her mother to buy her a dress for the school dance, refusing to wear the salwar kameez her mother prefers. And when she brings her new friend Nico - a boy,  home, Amina's mother shocks her by asking what his intentions are.

Overall, Amina's Song offers satisfying and positive conclusion to the story of Amina. It follows the typical formula for books about immigrant families, with the main character experiencing conflict over their identity as they struggle to navigate two cultures which usually have opposing values. Amina is a thoughtful, well drawn character who is able to see the good in both her American and Pakistani cultures, thus setting a positive tone at a time when newcomers are viewed with fear.

Book Details:

Amina's Song by Hena Khan
New York: Salaam Reads (An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Div.)    2021
280 pp.