A review by kk1010
Jasmine Zumideh Needs a Win by Susan Azim Boyer

3.0

Jasmine Zumideh is a great example of the best of YA fiction! Jasmine is an Iranian teen who loves one thing above all else: music. Yearning to be a real rock journalist, she’s planned it all out: finish the senior year, get into NYU, and then get the hell out of California. It’s a simple plan. But one little thing is in her way: Gerald Thomas. Her academic rival and competitor for the coveted spot in NYU’s acceptance pool. In a last-ditch effort to pad her application, Jasmine becomes the student body president-elect- well, kind of. All she has to do is beat Gerald and the spot is hers, but it soon becomes difficult when the Iranian hostage crisis breaks out and Gerald runs an anti-Iranian campaign, putting Jasmine and her family in danger. She will soon have to decide what’s more important: her aspirations or doing what’s right. Will she become the writer she’s always imagined being, or stand and fight for everything she’s dreamed of running from? Jasmine Zumideh is a fresh new Young Adult novel. Despite being set in the 70s, the narrative voice never loses its touch on modern teens. Tackling the standard teen conflicts in identity, aspirations, and family obligation, the novel takes a different approach, focusing through the lens of an Iranian-American teen growing up in the wake of a troublesome political event. This book is an entertaining and important read.