Amil and the After

Starred review from December 1, 2023
Grades 4-6 *Starred Review* Life is quite complicated for 12-year-old twins, Amil and Nisha. Their mother died when they were babies, leaving them in the care of their emotionally distant father and ailing grandmother. Then, the partition of India and Pakistan meant they had to leave their home in Pakistan and move to an apartment in Bombay. Both children exhibit signs of PTSD as a result of the arduous journey through the desert. Making friends in a new place is hard enough, but it is even harder in their context, when Hindu-Muslim tensions crackle in the air and neighbors eye one another suspiciously. Amil struggles in school, and readers might recognize his perception of letters and numbers as akin to dyslexia. He is, however, a talented artist and documents his days by drawing, hoping that somehow his mother can see his sketches and know how his life is unfolding. Amil and the After is a searingly emotional middle-grade novel that effectively captures the turmoil and joys of being a kid adjusting to all manner of life changes, all while providing the reader a tangible experience, replete with the tastes, sounds, and atmosphere of bustling post-Partition Bombay. Pencil sketches, supposedly from Amil's journal, add a charming visual dimension. The fast-paced, multifaceted plot will keep readers engaged while bringing them to a satisfying resolution.

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Starred review from November 15, 2023
In this stand-alone companion volume to Hiranandani's Newbery Honor title, The Night Diary (2018), a boy in post-partition Bombay grapples with the bitter realities of surviving trauma. After leaving their beloved home in Mirpur Khas, which is now part of the newly created Pakistan, 12-year-old twins Amil and Nisha are living in Bombay with their doctor father, paternal grandmother, and beloved family cook. While Amil (whose late mother was Muslim and father is Hindu) is grateful for their newfound safety, he's haunted by memories of their flight. Nisha kept a diary during their journey, and when she suggests Amil should draw to express his feelings, he begins sketching the family's new life. In addition to harboring complicated, painful feelings around his mother's death in childbirth, a result of complications from his breech positioning, Amil realizes while engaging in his art that his emotions are more intense and complicated than ever. These feelings come to a head when a classmate who was orphaned during the religious violence desperately needs his help, and Amil must decide what to do. This book is a masterpiece of nuance, vulnerability, and emotional complexity. Readers with ancestral connections to the Partition will especially appreciate its layered exploration of the lives of survivors, but Hiranandani provides enough context, skillfully woven throughout, that readers of all backgrounds will find it accessible and absorbing. Final art not seen. A quietly brilliant, deeply insightful story of living in uncertain times. (glossary, author's note) (Historical fiction. 8-12)

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January 1, 2024
In this companion to Newbery Honor Book The Night Diary (rev. 7/18), Nisha's twin brother, Amil, resumes the story. Everything was supposed to get better after their family survived the terrifying journey from Mirpur Khas to Bombay following the partition of India in 1947. Now they have a new flat, their father has a job at the hospital, and the twins are attending school. But Amil keeps flashing back to the terrible things he saw and experienced. He tries to quell his anxieties by drawing in his sketchbook (exuberantly depicted by illustrator Miranda), but what he really wants are "a friend and a bicycle." Part of those wishes comes true when he meets Vishal, a mysterious boy from a local refugee camp. When Vishal suddenly disappears, Amil discovers that the point of his own survival may be to help ensure the same for someone else. Fans of the previous title will appreciate this compassionate and thoughtful continuation of the family's story, while new readers can experience Amil's account of hope and survivor guilt as a standalone volume. A glossary and author's note are appended. Jennifer Hubert Swan

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from February 9, 2024

Gr 4-6-Hiranandani's Newbery Honor-winning The Night Diary is a family's story of survival. This companion novel is about their struggle to recover after life-changing trauma. Amil, twin sister Nisha, their father, grandmother, and family cook Kazi endured a harrowing flight from their home after the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan. Now living in Bombay, the family struggles to build a new life amid social and political unrest. While Nisha finds solace through writing, Amil expresses himself through drawing. Miranda's spot art effectively conveys Amil's longing for all that he has lost. But at 12, he'd also love to have a bicycle and a friend. How he gains both embodies the novel's themes of hope amid chaos and how kindness can save a life. Kazi advises Amil and Nisha: "Imagine if every person who wasn't suffering helped one person who was." A glossary of South Asian terms, words, and names is included but hardly needed as Hiranandani effortlessly incorporates the tastes, sights, sounds, and history of India in engaging prose. Flashbacks to the first novel round out the narrative and allow this sequel to stand on its own. VERDICT Accessible and engrossing, readers unfamiliar with the historic partition of India and Pakistan will nevertheless readily relate to a boy's yearning for stability in tumultuous times. A first purchase for all middle grade collections.-Marybeth Kozikowski

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2024
In this companion to Newbery Honor Book The Night Diary�cf12] (rev. 7/18), Nisha's twin brother, Amil, resumes the story. Everything was supposed to get better after their family survived the terrifying journey from Mirpur Khas to Bombay following the partition of India in 1947. Now they have a new flat, their father has a job at the hospital, and the twins are attending school. But Amil keeps flashing back to the terrible things he saw and experienced. He tries to quell his anxieties by drawing in his sketchbook (exuberantly depicted by illustrator Miranda), but what he really wants are "a friend and a bicycle." Part of those wishes comes true when he meets Vishal, a mysterious boy from a local refugee camp. When Vishal suddenly disappears, Amil discovers that the point of his own survival may be to help ensure the same for someone else. Fans of the previous title will appreciate this compassionate and thoughtful continuation of the family's story, while new readers can experience Amil's account of hope and survivor guilt as a standalone volume. A glossary and author's note are appended.

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)