{"id":43906,"date":"2024-06-26T22:35:23","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T02:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43906"},"modified":"2024-06-26T22:35:23","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T02:35:23","slug":"review-of-amil-and-the-after-by-veera-hiranandani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43906","title":{"rendered":"Review of Amil and the After, by Veera Hiranandani"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Amil and the After<\/em><\/p>\n

by Veera Hiranandani<\/p>\n

Kokila, 2024. 261 pages.
\nReview written June 20, 2024, from an advance reader copy sent to me by the publisher
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

I loved this book. Now, this is no surprise \u2013 this book features the same family as in The Night Diary<\/a><\/em>, one of the books the 2019 Newbery Committee I was on chose as an Honor book. I think I read that book at least three times and loved it. I was happy to spend time with Nisha and Amil again, in a happier part of their story.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what the book is about \u2013 how do you get back to a normal life after great upheaval and trauma? In The Night Diary<\/em>, Nisha and Amil\u2019s Hindu family (even though their dead mother was Muslim) have to flee Pakistan after Partition \u2013 when the country was created overnight. Their journey was dangerous and harrowing, and they saw some awful things.<\/p>\n

Now the family is settled in Bombay in 1948. Papa is working in a hospital there, and Nisha and Amil are going to school. But it\u2019s hard to make friends. And it\u2019s hard for Amil to concentrate on schoolwork. He\u2019d rather be drawing.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also hard for him to forget all the things he\u2019s seen. And he knows he\u2019s lucky \u2013 but what about the boys like him who are unlucky? Is there anything he can do to help?<\/p>\n

Amil\u2019s torn between heavy thoughts like that \u2013 and just wanting to daydream about getting a bicycle. But there\u2019s still unrest in India, and will they even be able to stay in Bombay?<\/p>\n

This book\u2019s told from Amil\u2019s perspective, and I loved spending time with him again and watching him learn to be happy again. (And you can read it if you haven\u2019t read the first book \u2013 but that will give you more context.)<\/p>\n

veerahiranandani.com<\/a>
\nPenguin.com\/kids<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Fiction\/amil_and_the_after.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amil and the After by Veera Hiranandani Kokila, 2024. 261 pages. Review written June 20, 2024, from an advance reader copy sent to me by the publisher Starred Review I loved this book. Now, this is no surprise \u2013 this book features the same family as in The Night Diary, one of the books the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,32,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-fiction-review","category-historical","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43906"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43918,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43906\/revisions\/43918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}