The City of Jasmine

An image rich story about memories, The City of Jasmine by debut author Nadine Presley and Heather Brockman Lee will transport readers to Syria.

A child tells the story of where she comes from…Syria. While the rest of the world sees images of destruction and forms biases of a scary and war torn place, this child invites readers into the beauty of a home. We take a trip through Damascus and learn of all the special people and places that make it home.

Nadine Presley invites readers to Syria through the powerful, lyrical text. As stated in her author’s note, readers and their adults in the western world have a biased understanding of Syria as we are constantly fed images of war and destruction. Through Nadine’s story, we are granted the opportunity to travel to a beautiful city filled with sights, sounds and smells that fill the senses. Her beautiful poetic text is instantly transportive, creating incredible pictures in our minds while we travel with her.

Young readers need to become critical thinkers and one way to do so is through these magical texts that make them question what they see in the mainstream media. This story is a celebration of a beautiful place that holds cherished memories for many people, including many readers who may have had to leave the country and are now in classrooms in many different parts of the world. 

Heather Brockman Lee takes Nadine Presley’s descriptive text and compliments it with beautiful images of the people and places of Syria. She captures so much beauty and joy throughout the illustrations and they are such a feast for the eyes that readers will need to return to the story often to see what new things are to be discovered.