This was a great #ownvoices YA story set in 1979 California about a Iranian-American teen girl trying to get into college in NYC and pursue her music journalism career. The only problem - she lied on her college application and said she was already class president and now has to make sure she wins at all costs.

Full of witty dialogue, lots of high school drama and important conversations about race, complicated broken families and not judging people before you get to know them. I liked it a lot on audio narrated by Lanna Joffrey. Recommended for fans of The (un)popular vote or Blaine for the win.

Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for early digital copies in exchange for my honest review!

Jasmine Zumideh Needs a Win by Susan Azim Boyer

Jasmine is trying to get into NYU for its journalistic excellence. Jasmine needs some stuff to add to her application to make her a good candidate for admission to NYU. Her options are slim until she finds out she can run for school president. This is where the story takes off it is back dropped in the 1980's. Jasmine is Iranian American and during this time in the 80's Iran took hostages. Her running mate tries to pin this onto Jasmine to thwart her candidacy.

Jasmine learns some life lessons like telling lies to the people you care about is not good and telling lies to win an election is not good as well. The deep story mixes in how real world politics plays into school level politics. Jasmine is a likable character she is a talented writer. She does a full change even dying her last name to try to win the school president. What I see is Jasmine lets things get out of control she loses herself in it all. Her character what she stands for is thrown in the trash all for a win to get to NYU.

I like the real life lessons that a teen can learn from this book that creating a mess to get ahead will always backfire. Throw real world politics and our main character denying her own heritage was heart breaking. I think this book fits for what is happening now how immigrants are lumped in the same group as bad people. Not everyone is the same. The teenage pressures of going to a dance, finding first love, college applications, family issues and life stressors all play out in Jasmine life.
Her merit of how well she writes should have been good enough to get into NYU on its own.

Jasmine grows through the story and you see her in the struggles of making the right decisions for herself even as she is making mistakes along the way she doesn't feel good about the error of her ways and tries to make things right. In the end we see Jasmine as she was meant to be she takes responsibility of the things she did wrong. I love also the supporting characters in the story which makes this a great read!

Lanna Joffrey did a great job bring all the characters to life lending them a voice in telling the story. It was easy to listen to and she brought out the humor that Mrs. Boyer trickles into the story. This was a five star read for me I like the diversity of the character and hearing a different perspective of story telling by an immigrant student. Also putting real world politics into the story shows how this can effects students in school and make them feel punished for who they are by there heritage. Not all people of a heritage is the same.

Thank you to Net Galley and Macmillan audio for a free copy of this audio book for an honest review. All ideas and opinions in this review are my own without any coercion from the publisher.

An excellent YA debut that surpassed all expectations!

Synopsis: This story follows Jasmine Zumiedh, an Iranian-American student who runs for senior class president to increase her chances of getting into NYU. Torn between doing what she thinks is right versus what will get her the most votes, Jasmine starts to make one wrong decision after the next.

Thoughts: While this story takes place in 1979, I feel like Jasmine is the messy/ emotional teenage girl that all of us can relate to. She struggles with her identity, has typical teenage feelings of embarrassment, didn’t always make the smartest choices but through it all was determined to succeed. She reminds me a lot like Devi in Never Have I Ever, which is one of my favorite YA shows. Writing wise, the book was hard to put down and perfectly paced. I found a lot dialogue to be laugh out loud funny with many pop culture references. I will say that there were some moments that were a bit cringy, but all together this was such a heartfelt story that I will be recommending to many!

Read if you like:
-YA fiction
-High school setting
-Iranian-American rep
-Conflicted heroines
-Stories about identity struggles

Thank you Wednesday books. Out 11/1/22

4.5 stars for Jasmine Zumideh!

Plot: Jasmine Zumideh wants nothing more than to be the first student from her school to be accepted to NYU. However, she realizes that she is short on extracurriculars and decides to run for Senior Class President. After realizing that her odds of acceptance would increase with an early decision application, Jasmine decides to write that she served as Senior Class President on her application, even though she hasn't been elected yet. Jasmine is pretty confident that she'll be elected because she's against Gerald Thomas, the school's ultra-type A candidate who is ready to reinstate a dress code. But, Iran is suddenly dominating the news in response to a real-life international incident, which turns the election upside down. Anti-Iranian hysteria erupts at school, and Jasmine's brother Ali emerges as an outspoken advocate for Iran. With the election at the forefront of her mind, Jasmine decides to downplay her Iranian identity (and association with her brother) out of fear of losing the election. Soon, Jasmine finds herself going to great lengths and compromising her integrity all because of this election--will she be elected? And, if so, at what cost?

Thoughts: This was a refreshing YA read that positively and realistically portrays an Iranian-American female student navigating her identity in the 1970s. Although not set in the present, much of the plot is unfortunately still relevant today, particularly the xenophobia toward Iranians. Jasmine's high school experience is completely realistic, and the author did an excellent job of highlighting the complexities of the high school social scene with the added layer of grappling with one's ethnic identity. There are so many relatable challenges that Jasmine faces, and I think any high school student could find some aspect of her character to connect with. I absolutely plan on recommending this to my high schoolers and think many of them would enjoy.

I was in eighth grade in the fall of 1979, when this story takes place. I read the newspaper daily and watched major network news nightly, including its update of the number of days the hostages had been held in Iran (eventually totaling 444).

In this YA historical fiction debut, Jasmine Zumideh (sounds like “ZoomyDAY”) is an American teenager of Iranian heritage who is running to be senior class president at her California high school. She finds herself conflicted between winning her campaign (to support her college application) and defending her family; and subjected to hate from her classmates, largely born from ignorance, intolerance, and misinformation (long before the age of wanton and rampant misinformation-peddling via social media, Fox News, and even misguided and dangerous “equal time” given by mainstream television and written news in lieu of straight reporting).

In addition to the fraught political situation, there's the usual YA drama of friends and romantic relationships, sports, and partying, along with fashion and culture (latchkey kids, Gilligan's Island, Burt Reynolds, satin bomber jackets, Tab, and Spencer's gift stores) and lots of music (The Pretenders, Elvis Costello, Cheap Trick, Pink Floyd, and The Who, among others).

Possibly my favorite character is Jasmine's Auntie Minah (her father's sister), who cares for Jasmine and her brother after their parents' divorce, while their white American mom is trying to get back on her feet (living away from the kids, with her own mother) and their Iranian immigrant dad is away on business. [The author has the same parentage.] While Jasmine and Ali are both teenagers, Auntie Minah cooks and cleans, teaches and cares for them. There are also some brief scenes in which Jasmine's Iranian grandmother (living in Iran) is present via phone or discussed.

Thank you, Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and Wednesday Books, for the audio ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review. Publication is expected November 1.

3.5 ⭐

I loved the premise of this book, and thought that the plot and characters had promise. However, the FMC combined with the narrator made it almost unbearable to listen to. It made her come off as OTT overbearing.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. Pub date: November 1, 2022

Student government elections never bring out the best in people. Iranian-American Jasmine has her eyes set on attending NYU for journalism school so she can write for a music magazine. She stretches the truth on her application setting off a desperate circus of events to ensure she’s elected class president. Set in the late 70’s, real world events (Iranian hostage crisis) weave into this mature YA high school drama.

This was a different type of book but it left me confused at times. Sometimes the characters are mature and discussing real world events, but the other half has this group making questionable decisions that are frustratingly immature. I know this is set in the 70s so it read a bit like a cult classic movie from the 80s and I’m not sure if this will speak to a YA audience today. It reads as if a millennial tried to write about kids these days without being in touch with them—the storyline about her hiding her heritage and the dated clique-naming and stereotyping (and the voices done by the narrator only furthered these) seems the opposite of what most kids would do these days. I would not recommend this to anyone under the age of 16 because of language and themes throughout. Jasmine is an unlikeable character, who comes to her senses too late in the book (aside from changing who she is to fit in and having pretentious music opinions, she also gives up on her dreams at the drop of a hat).

This was fine. A fast, engaging contemporary about an Iranian girl running for class president to beef up her college application for NYU. This book is set in 1979 when Iran was in the news for a hostage situation, which begins to impact how Jasmine is seen by her classmates. She tries to distance herself by using her middle name instead of her last name and promising ridiculous things that many high school kids running for class president also try to promise. Her opponent uses her ethnicity against her and runs on a platform of promising to write a letter to President Carter about the hostages.

Yes, these kids are in high school so pretty much everything they're promising to do is ridiculous.

I think it's more about Jasmine learning to be proud of her background instead of shying away from it and being yourself instead of trying to make other people like you. It's a common theme in YA lit, but I haven't seen YA tackle 1979 Iranian issues so that was different.