Amal Unbound

Amal, a diligent student in her Pakistani village, must leave school to help run the house and when she vents her frustrations at the market she insults the wealthy landowner who holds the family's loans. He calls in the debt and Amal is forced to work as an indentured servant at his manor house, where she shares her literacy and makes friends, but also discovers deceit, corruption, and murder and risks her safety to tell the police. This sensitive, engaging book for grades 5-7 is suitable for literature circles or class read-aloud and can launch discussion of class systems, corruption, child labour, bonded labour, social justice, gender inequity, family roles, and self-advocacy.