This interview originally appeared in the January/February 2021 Horn Book Magazine as part of the Publishers’ Previews: Middle-Grade, an advertising supplement that allows participating publishers a chance to each highlight a book from its current list. They choose the books; we ask the questions.

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In Amina’s Song, sequel to Amina’s Voice, the protagonist finds out that her American classmates have a lot to learn about her beloved Pakistan.

1. Were you a school-club joiner?

In high school, I was on the debate team, school newspaper, and field hockey team, and in service clubs. Unlike Amina, I do not have any singing talent or desire to perform, so I stayed away from the chorus and drama club!

2. What’s one thing you wish Americans understood about Pakistan?

Pakistan is a relatively young country still grappling with the legacy of colonialism, so Pakistani people have endured a lot of instability and conflict, but they remain resilient, generous, and enterprising. And everyone there, from a village schoolteacher to a big-city executive, wants the same basic things for their families and futures as we do in America.

3. Who was your childhood book heroine?

I adored Ramona Quimby and her antics. She made mistakes and was grumpy at times, yet she always seemed to have fun. I wished for the confidence to wear coffee-can stilts and clomp through my neighborhood singing at the top of my lungs.

4. Does writing a sequel change how you see the book it came from?

It forced me to think about what I included in Amina’s Voice and consider the feedback since it came out. I wanted to address the questions I’ve been asked, and honor readers’ emotional journeys in the first book. I also wanted to make sure they felt connected to the characters they already knew, while those characters continue to evolve.

5. Any advice for staying connected to faraway family?

I saw my mother pine for her family in Pakistan when I was growing up in Maryland. She’d wait months to finally have a static-filled three-minute phone conversation with her parents, since long-distance calls were so expensive. Today, she can video-call her relatives anytime, and we all enjoy family chat groups. For me, the simplest way to stay connected is to make sure people who live far away know they matter, and to reach out specifically to let them know I’m thinking of them.

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Photo: Havar Espedal.