Jasmine is ready for Parlour Day. She has fish and her famous sugar cakes to sell with her mother. Jasmine looks forward to a competition with all of the others selling. She also walks around and gives a sugar cake to everyone, even the mean and rude sellers. ( )

I very much enjoyed this story. I believe that it is appealing to children because it comes from a young girl's perspective and presents a work day as an exciting event. I also love how the book takes a tradition from a certain culture or population and presents it in a very accessible and positive way. Children are therefore taught about a tradition that they may not be familiar with and they get to learn about it from the perspective of another child. The one thing that I was unsure about in this story is the way that the author wrote "de" when the characters were saying "the." I completely understand that this pronunciation may be accurate to the culture, but I was unsure if this was a generalization or somehow stereotyping a group of people. This is something that I truly do not know and therefore I thought it might be an interesting thing to talk about. ( )

This book is ok. I read this to a class and they liked it, nothing special though. Good to read when talking about celebrating special days or events.

Summary: This book shows a different way of life on Maracas Beach. It is about a girl named Jasmine who lives with her mother. They are preparing for selling their goods at the market, called Parlour Day. They live a very simple life on the island and Jasmine is a happy young girl playing with her friends and visiting others who are also at the market. She also must help her mother sell their sugar cakes and fish.
Personal Reaction: I really liked this book. It showed how they lived in a different environment,had different foods, and was a more simple was of living than ours. The girl was a very happy girl and had good friends. We could learn from this book, that happiness doesn't come from all the material things we have.
Classroom Extension Ideas: We can look up where Jasmines home is and see where this place is on the globe, from where we live. We can talk about ways we help our mom and dad at home. ( )

Jasmine and her mother attends Parlour day every year. This is when families get together and set up booths. Jasmine and her mother are selling sugar cookies and fish. Before the parlour starts everyone interacts with one another. Once they see the surf boards and boats come out they begin to solicite. ( )