Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed

★★★★

In the Author's Note, the author praises Malala Yousafzai, and it seems to me that the main character Amal is a fictionalized version of Malala. Like Malala, Amal is a Pakistani girl who is passionate about school and learning. Books have a very special place in her heart. She believes girls and boys should have equal opportunities, and she is brave enough to speak out when others won't. Though Amal doesn't have Malala's platform for change, she realizes that one person can make a big difference no matter who they are, where they live, or what their station in life is.

Amal has dreams of becoming a teacher, but everything falls apart when she is forced to live as a servant in the house of the village's most ruthlessly powerful family. Initially she is being punished for acting "disrespectfully", but her situation is basically one of indentured servitude; she must work for as long as it takes her father to pay off his debts, but since the cost of her room and board are constantly being added to the debt, there is little chance of him ever being able to pay it off.

As Amal becomes accustomed to the life of a servant, she realizes first that life really is not fair, and second, life is about choices. All choices have consequences, and the challenge is being brave enough to make the right choices, even when it's hard.

I enjoyed this story, and the warm depiction of life in Pakistan. But a few things prevented me from giving it 5 stars. Generally speaking, I like children's books to wrap up nicely, but this one had a bit too much open-endedness for my liking. I'm okay with Amal's future being uncertain in a hopeful way, but I was bothered by not knowing what would become of Jawad Sahib. Also, towards the end, the driver Ghulam is the most anxious about losing his livelihood, yet we have no assurances about what would become of him. And though Omar was a great friend to Amal at the beginning of the book, we never get to see them re-connect.

I was also disappointed that Jawad Sahib and Nasreen Baji weren't more fully developed characters. I thought there would be some complexity when Jawad Sahib was presented in a softer light in his mother's presence, and also when he showed just an inkling of humanity at the knowledge that Amal could read. But in the end, he was simply evil through and through. This seemed particularly bothersome because his mother, Nasreen Baji, turned out to be so kind and decent, and with the two of them still living in the same household, it's hard to see how she could not have had more of a positive influence on her son. I kept expecting to see a glimmer of redemption in Jawad Sahib, or a streak of callousness in Nasreen Baji, to give the family more depth, but they remained one-dimensional.