08/13/2018
Yasmin Ahmad is a second grader who loves to explore, paint, build and more. She’s brave and adventurous in everything she does: making maps, creating messes, discovering new things. Most of all, she’s a problem solver.
Meet your new favorite second grader! Whether she’s visiting the farmer’s market with her mama or creating a fashion show with her nani, Yasmin is an adventurer and a problem solver. Hatem Aly’s lively illustrations perfectly capture Yasmin’s exuberant personality at school and at home with her family. Be sure to add this charmer to your beginning reader’s bookshelf!
2018 Buyers Guide Wild Rumpus
...a great read to recommend to transitional chapter book readers.
It’s nice when you get a book that knows how to sell itself. Just look at Hatem Aly’s art here. Dude knows what he’s doing, and what he’s doing is sucking you into reading Ms. Faruqi’s tales of Yasmin and her family. I don’t need to tell you that contemporary Muslim-American stories aren’t exactly commonplace quite yet. This book marks a peppy, colorful, thoroughly enjoyable step in the right direction.
This is a fun early reader, great for kids interested in strong female characters having realistic adventures. . . .Meet Yasmin! also does a great job of incorporating the main character's Pakistani American heritage in small ways throughout the stories. . . .With expressive illustrations by Hatem Aly, short, easy to read chapters, and a main character with a plucky personality and strong problem-solving skills, Meet Yasmin! is a good choice for early readers in search of a contemporary story full of realistic adventures and a lot of fun. Highly Recommended.
CM: Canadian Review of Materials
...a fun chapter book that should join the likes of Jasmine Toguchi by Debbi Michiko Florence and Lola Levine by Monica Brown.
In this joyful, reassuring series, a second-grader solves typical kid problems like getting separated from her parents when they’re shopping, and spilling on her clothes. Faruqi, who was born in Pakistan, integrates the country’s customs into the plots. Full-color illustrations throughout make this series even more engaging, says Parents advisor Jennifer Serravallo, author of The Reading Strategies Book. 12 books, ages 5 to 8
Yasmin and her family, who speak both English and Urdu, are Pakistani American, and Faruqi incorporates elements of Pakistani customs into the text; the book even closes with a few Urdu words, as well as facts about Pakistan. Yasmin’s adventures and dilemmas, however, are universal elementary-aged ones, as she overcomes artist’s block for an art competition, finds her own creative conclusion to a frustrating building project in school, and more. With each adventure, she gains more confidence and discovers new things about herself and her world, as inquisitive second-graders are wont to do. Faruqi captures Yasmin’s ups-and-downs with precise, economic language, and Aly’s vivid illustrations capture Yasmin’s world.
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
What an adorable main character! . . .I LOVE the diversity, the gutsy main-character, and the beautiful design of the entire book.
I took the book to my story time at the library and it got a room full of thumbs up.
Four brief stories make up this first installment about curious and spirited Yasmin. The charming art will draw in readers.
Young readers are going to relate to many of the situations that Yasmin finds herself in. . . .Many readers are also going to appreciate the cultural details that Saadia seamlessly weaves into her story. . . .Meet Yasmin! is well crafted for beginning readers, with a crisp focus on problem and resolution, a small cast of characters for new readers to learn, and an engaging main character. Hand this to readers who like relatable, funny stories with short chapters.
Pakistani American author Faruqi makes her kidlit debut with this early chapter book introducing plucky second-grader Yasmin, who approaches life’s problems with imagination and verve. . . .Both author and illustrator do a good job integrating Pakistani and Muslim cultural details into the story: Mom is depicted with and without a hijab, and Urdu words appear throughout. Appended with discussion questions, an Urdu glossary, Pakistani facts, a recipe, and a craft, this should be a welcome addition to the transitional-reader shelf.
Yasmin is an adorable and relatable character who manages to get herself into trouble or find herself stuck with a problem, but also finds a way out by using her creativity and smarts, which, hello, I love.
No matter what challenge Yasmin faces, she uses her curiosity, imagination, and the support of her family to tackle it.
Yasmin and her Pakistani American family will delight you. Yasmin shares her problem-solving skills in creative and inventive ways. . . .MEET YASMIN is a welcome addition to the chapter book market. I look forward to reading more of Yasmin’s trials and learning how she tackles them. I’m sure kids will too!
...looks at the adventures of a bright, intelligent young girl and her multi-generational Pakistani American family.
The International Examiner
Books should be windows and mirrors*, and Meet Yasmin is that for many children around the world. We think every classroom should have a copy of this book in their library.
The cultural and religious references are placed unobtrusively in the background. . . .The fact that her mom grabs her purse and her hijab when she’s getting ready to leave the house and that her dad calls her jaan are just normal parts of Yasmin’s life and a normal part of the fabric of American life. . . .these are fun stories that everyone can enjoy.
I am always searching for chapter books that will appeal to young readers who are looking for those longer books. . . . .I am thrilled to have a series that features characters that are brown-skinned and introduces us to a different language, traditions and culture. Yasmin is a Pakistani-American and while growing up in America, also keeps some Pakistani traditions in her home. So while the situations are familiar (figuring out what to build, accidentally ripping clothing, creating a work of art, exploring) they are infused with potentially new words for readers, such as hijab, Baba, and sari.
While each story tackles a problem, the conflict doesn’t arise from Yasmin’s cultural identity. The plots are universally relatable, for Yasmin faces challenges that every kid has gone through. . . .There’s some very clever writing going here, where the cultural information is prominent but never obtrusive. . . .Each story is brimming with heart.
Young readers who like a spunky, take-charge main character need to MEET YASMIN, by Saadia Faruqi.
★ 07/01/2018
★ 2018-05-28
