Like the Sofia books, these are available in single titles or in a chapter-book style collection, which I am reviewing here. It includes four stories: Yasmin the explorer, Yasmin the painter, Yasmin the builder, and Yasmin the fashionista. In the first story, we meet Yasmin who is learning about maps. She draws a map of her hometown, but gets lost when she goes to the farmer's market with her mother. Will her map help her find her way back? In the second and third story, we see Yasmin at school, working on art and science projects and putting her unique spin on things. The four story returns to Yasmin's home and her extended family as she enjoys dressing up in her mother's clothes with her grandmother, Nani.
At the back there are questions about the stories, a glossary of the Urdu words in the text, a page of facts about Pakistan, a recipe and crafts, and a profile of the author and illustrator.
The bright illustrations show the spunky and enthusiastic Yasmin with dark skin, short black hair, and gold earrings. Her father is casually dressed and her mother wears a hijab outside the house. She appears to live in a fairly diverse area; her teacher is white, with short, spiky hair, but a variety of races and families are shown in the school.
I felt there was a little more wish-fulfillment in Yasmin's stories than in Sofia's life. Sofia has to deal with siblings, sometimes feeling left out in her big, noisy family, and not always getting her own way. Yasmin seems to be the sole focus of her family and lives in what appears to be a prosperous urban area. Despite her doubts, she easily wins an art contest (and free lessons with a famous artist) and her mother appears to have an extensive collection of beautiful clothing.
Verdict: This is a sweet look at a loving family, but it's not quite right for my audience. I appreciate that it gives my readers a look at a different culture which they are very unlikely to have encountered in our small town, but the economic status and single-child family is more of an outlier than the family's culture. We'll stick with Sofia, which is very popular in my library.
ISBN: 9781684360222; This edition published August 2018 by Picture Window/Capstone; Borrowed from another library in my consortium
2 comments:
This book looks very interesting! What grades do you think this would be appropriate for? Do you know of anything else written by this author?
I'd say 1st-3rd grade - Sofia is a little easier and I have a lot of 1st and 2nd graders who get into that. Yasmin is a little young for some 3rd graders, but it would really depend on the individual child.
It looks like this is her first children's book, but assuming Yasmin is similar to Sofia there will probably be a long series of the titles. Hopefully she will continue to write for kids! She does have some adult items out that look interesting.
http://www.saadiafaruqi.com/
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