Action Jasmine

Jasmine prefers to blend with the background, she peeks around and hides behind her big glasses when watching others play. When she’s reading with her grandpa though she creates a new character, Action Jasmine. Action Jasmine isn’t scared, she’s brave and always saves the day. Jasmine’s grandpa is challenging her to go on an adventure with him at the park but she’s a bit scared until she remembers that they can go incognito. While sneaking around the park Jasmine spots a boy playing on his own and thinks about trying to play with him. Will jasmine get the courage to make a new friend?

What I Liked: This book begins through introducing you to Jasmine and how she engages with the world before showing you the change that occurs when Jasmine is reading with her grandpa and creates Action Jasmine. There’s fun illustrations that depict the images that Jasmine draws of the things that Action Jasmine is doing throughout the day and how she uses those powers at home.

This book does a great job at showing how Jasmine’s grandpa is patient with her and understands that she is shy. When Jasmine wants to go incognito, her grandpa joins in on the fun and encourages her to be brave when she gets scared. These moments are great additions to this story as you see the importance of supporting young children and how important encouragement through your language is for them.

When new words are introduced, such as incognito, petrified, etc. they are in bold text or large font before including a child friendly definition in parenthesis. The definition in parenthesis adds to the fun of this book as it is shares through Jasmine’s voice as the larger terms are code words. There’s also humor included throughout this book in moments such as Jasmine saving a stray beast, which is a caterpillar form a pigeon, or her helping a prince who lost his way, a lost dog.

Final Verdict: Action Jasmine is a creative and imaginative story about coming out of your shell and the good things that come from having fun even when others may laugh at you. This book is great for sharing with children how other kids feel when alone and encouraging them to be themselves and enjoy themselves.