Jazz Imagination: A Journal to Read and Write

Scholastic's 1997 National Teacher of the Year, Sharon Draper, has written an unusual and fascinating book for middle-grade and YA girls that's part journal and part novel.

Meet Jasmine---Jazzy, for short. She's a thirteen-year-old with lots of thirteen-year-old things going on in her life. Things she likes to write down in her journal. Jazzy wonders about who she is, her parents, her school, boys (of course)---normal stuff. But she also thinks about her body, getting older, and death.
Jazzy is a teenager like most. But, by reading her entries, this journal not only gives the reader a chance to see that their feelings and emotions are sometimes shared by others, it also gives the reader a place to write what they might be feeling, as well.

Thirteen-year-old Jazzy keeps a journal in which she records her thoughts about family, friends, boys, school, dreams, nature, and colors. Provides space for readers to record their own thoughts and feelings.

Sharon Draper

Sharon Draper is a two-time Coretta Scott King Award-winning author, most recently for Copper Sun, and previously for Forged by Fire. She's also the recipient of the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Author Award for New Talent for Tears of a Tiger and the Coretta Scott King Author Honor for The Battle of Jericho and November Blues. Her other books include Romiette and Julio, Darkness Before Dawn, and Double Dutch. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she taught high school English for twenty-five years.