Yasmin the Detective - Saadia Faruqi - ★★★★

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AUTHOR: Saadia Faruqi
ILLUSTRATOR: Hatem Aly
GENRE: Children's Picture Book
PUBLICATION DATE: August 1, 2022
RATING: 4 stars.

A cute chapter book about a little girl who becomes a detective to help her grandma.

Yasmin is a little girl who loves to watch “Detective Hoo”, a TV program with an owl for a detective. When her grandma loses a couple of her things, Yasmin decides to don the mantle of her idol and starts investigating what might have happened.

I wasn’t aware that there is an entire series of chapter books based on the character of Yasmin. To a certain extent, this hindered my comprehension as I wasn’t aware of the little girl’s age or location. But one can read the book even without these details.

Yasmin and her family are Pakistanis, but the story is written in a neutral manner so it could be set anywhere. Even the scene that is in the classroom has only Yasmin in the illustrations. At the same time, the culture of the family clearly comes out through the clothes and the food.

The story is really sweet and brings out the curiosity and observations of the young detective well. There are a few questions at the end of the book to enable a discussion on the events that occurred. There’s also a glossary of the Urdu words used, fun facts about Pakistan and a special activity.

The illustrations are wonderfully cute. The content per page is quite limited and the language is easy enough for beginner readers to give this chapter book a go.

My thanks to Capstone, Picture Window Books, and NetGalley for the DRC of “Yasmin the Detective”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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