Book Review-Meet Yasmin

Title: Meet Yasmin
Author: Saadia Faruqi
Illustrator: Hatem Aly

I read a portion of Meet Yasmin with my second graders today after buying it this past weekend.  We love Yasmin! She is a second-grader just like my students.  This book is a collection of 4 short stories, each broken up into several chapters.  My students loved the first story about Yasmin exploring her neighborhood.  I set the book on the shelf when I finished and there are already requests to read the rest of the stories tomorrow.  Yasmin's family is from Pakistan.  She calls her father 'baba.'  One of my students heard this and shouts, "that's what I call my dad, too!"  Watching her eyes light up when she realized Yasmin spoke the same language as her family was the best part of this read aloud.  I love the way this book feels like a chapter book, but is a simple read for my students who need it.  We need more books for this type of reader, especially ones that represent underrepresented cultures.  I can't recommend this one enough!

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