Yasmin in Charge by Saadia Faruqi

📚 BOOK REVIEW 📚

Title: Yasmin in Charge (4 books in 1)

Author: Saadia Faruqi @saadiafaruqi

Illustrator: Hatem Aly

Publisher: Capstone Publishing @capstonepub

Type: Fiction

Age: 5 – 11

Rating: 10/10 🌟

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Islamic Content: Visibly Muslim protagonist/family ⭐ Concerns: Music is mentioned but no further elaboration to it (only in Yasmin the Chef)

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Summary: The copy I have is 4 books in 1: Yasmin the Teacher, Yasmin the Chef, Yasmin the Zookeeper and Yasmin the Superhero. Yasmin is a Pakistani American girl who finds solutions to her daily happenings. In Yasmin the Teacher, she is put in charge of her class while her teacher steps out. Yasmin is able to find the perfect way to keep her classmates on task and calm. Yasmin the Chef takes it upon herself to cook a dish for their family party because everything on the menu is either too spicy, too sour or too messy. Yasmin the Zookeeper helps feed the monkeys their lunch while their school visit to the Zoo. When she trips and falls, the bowl of fruit is dumped into the pond. Sharing and kindness is the solution to this problem. Yasmin the Superhero wants to save the world from the villains. She goes out to look for villains in her neighbourhood, but she doesn’t find any. How can she save the world if there are no villains?

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Review: These types of books are so valuable to our kids. Seeing the Muslim protagonist be the hero in their story without making their faith the center of their dilemma. They are just kids being kids in their daily life without dealing with the deep-rooted issues we see today. There are, of course other aspects of this series that I truly love and appreciate: the diverse characters, the mix of Pakistani and American cultures, the moral lessons in each book (sharing, kindness, helping, appreciation, problem solving). There is a total of 12 books in this series. Everytime we sit to read this book, it is impossible to read only one, my kids insist that we read all four of them in one sitting. That really is the most important aspect; the kids enjoying the story every time. The end of the book includes the following extra pages: 1- Think about it, talk about it page 2-Learn Urdu with Yasmin 3-Pakistan Fun Facts 4- Make a Paper bag Superhero This is definitely a one of a kind series that every library should have.

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Available: Wherever books are sold. I got my copy from Indigo #saadiafaruqi #yasminseries #yasminincharge #yasmintheteacher #yasminthechef #yasminthezookeeper #yasminthesuperhero #meetyasmin #hatemaly #muslimkidsbooks #muslimauthor #muslimkidslit #raisingmuslimreaders