Welcome to Windows & Mirrors, where we feature books that provide us windows to lives outside our own and mirrors to our shared common human experiences.

Today we are featuring Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed.

Amal lives in a quiet, ordinary Pakistani village. An excellent student who dreams of being a teacher one day, she loves school and hanging out with her family and friends. But everything changes for Amal when her mom has another baby. Being the oldest girl in the family means she must step in to care for her younger siblings while her mom recovers from postpartum depression. On her way home from the market one day, she has a run-in with Jawad, the son of their village’s corrupt landlord. Due to a slip of her tongue, Jawad orders her to work as a servant to pay off her family’s debt.

Working at Jawad’s family’s estate means she becomes more and more aware of his evil deeds. Despite making friends with Jawad’s mother, she knows she can’t let him get away with the terrible crimes he has committed. But who can she trust? Even the “police” in Pakistan are questionable. And what if she endangers herself or her family?

I was totally swept away by this window into Pakistani culture. With cliffhanger chapter endings, a vividly detailed setting that appealed to all my senses, and a beautifully-developed heroine that won my heart over within a few pages, I finished Amal Unbound in one sitting. Though this is a work of fiction, between chapters I couldn’t help but consider the reality that there are people living in Pakistan and elsewhere who are dealing with horrible, or worse, circumstances like Amal every day. This stirring tale of resistance and real-life injustice speaks to the power of education and its ability to change the world. The author’s endnotes are not to be missed!

Amal Unbound has received multiple starred reviews from Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, and School Library Journal. Add this inspiring story to your list of must-read fiction for the summer for ages 10+.

Aisha Saeed is the author of WRITTEN IN THE STARS, AMAL UNBOUND, and a forthcoming picture book BILAL COOKS DAAL. She is also a founding member of the nonprofit We Need Diverse Books™. She has been featured on MTV, the Huffington Post, NBC, and the BBC, and her writings have appeared in publications including the journal ALAN and the Orlando Sentinel.

Aisha lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and three sons.

Check out her website and follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Posted by Michelle Leonard.