Jazmin's Notebook

         Chapter Book #  5

         AUTHOR:  Nikki Grimes

         ILLUSTRATOR:  Eric Velasquez (jacket)

 

         GENRE:  Realistic Juvenile Fiction

         SUB GENRE:  Poetry

         THEME:   Urban Life, Family

         PRIMARY AND SECONDARY CHARACTERS:

         Jazmin and  her sister Cece

AWARDS: 

A Coretta Scott King Honor Book
A Book list Editors' Choice Book
Bank Street College Book of the Year 

DATE OF PUBLICATION AND PUBLISHER:   

1998 by Dial Books

SUMMARY:  Jazmin’s Notebook was most enjoyable.  It can be read by both adults and children.  It is about a 14 year old girl Jazmin who faces much adversity in her young years and chronicles theses experiences in a diary.  Each entry starts with a poem, and they are all touching.  Jazmin lives in Harlem and has faced the death of her father and her mother’s alcoholism.  She and her sister Cece are wise beyond their years.  This book is a “must read” and although it will pull at your heart strings, it will leave you feeling hopeful for them both.

HOW WOULD YOU USE THIS BOOK AS A TEACHER:  Some of the experiences that Jazmin faces will be easy to relate to as adolescents.  We could turn this into a lesson on identifying poetic terms like personification, simile, metaphor, assonance and alliteration.