A review by tashrow
Yasmin's Hammer by Ann Malaspina, Doug Chayka
4.0
In Dhaka, Bangladesh, Yasmin rides to work in the morning in her father’s rickshaw. Though Yasmin longs to go to school, she has to help earn money so that her family can eat and her father can someday purchase the rickshaw. Yasmin thinks about the quiet days in her village before the cyclone forced them to move to the noise and bustle of the city. Now she must work breaking bricks for use in building roads and buildings. Even Yasmin’s little sister must work in the brickyard so the family can survive. Yasmin comes up with a plan of how she can both help her family and make sure that she can be educated too. Each day she works harder and faster than anyone else, and the boss gives her extra coins. These she saves for her secret plan that no one in her family knows about.
Sprinkled with Bangladeshi words, Malaspina’s text is poetic and strong. She captures the city and the country in tangible ways, through colors, sounds and smells. This is a book about child labor, though it is not overly dramatic. It is a quiet story of desperation in the face of poverty. The focus is on the importance of education for children and the struggles that a family must overcome to offer it.
Chayka’s illustrations are filled with warm light. They capture the hustle of the city streets, nicely contrasting it with the quiet of the countryside. Bright colors, enliven his paintings that invite readers into this story.
This is an important book that offers a glimpse of children living in very different circumstances than we see in our part of the world. It is one that will spur discussions and also have children realizing how well off they are to not have to work and to be able to go to school. Appropriate for ages 5-8.
Sprinkled with Bangladeshi words, Malaspina’s text is poetic and strong. She captures the city and the country in tangible ways, through colors, sounds and smells. This is a book about child labor, though it is not overly dramatic. It is a quiet story of desperation in the face of poverty. The focus is on the importance of education for children and the struggles that a family must overcome to offer it.
Chayka’s illustrations are filled with warm light. They capture the hustle of the city streets, nicely contrasting it with the quiet of the countryside. Bright colors, enliven his paintings that invite readers into this story.
This is an important book that offers a glimpse of children living in very different circumstances than we see in our part of the world. It is one that will spur discussions and also have children realizing how well off they are to not have to work and to be able to go to school. Appropriate for ages 5-8.