Jasmine Warga

Written by Jordan Lloyd Bookey | Jul 9, 2025 6:59:19 AM

We all want to make the most of our time here. Not just survive, but dream big and live fully. For Jasmine Warga, that means carrying forward the strength of those before her while creating space for joy, curiosity, and self-discovery. It means letting go of perfection, holding on to radical hope, and writing stories that reflect kids’ realities.

“We all need to have radical hope. I have my really hopeless days too, but… it’s such a privilege to get to live and to survive. Our job is to live, and I think that’s a really amazing thing.” — Jasmine Warga

Jasmine Warga is a Newbery Honor winner and New York Times bestselling author of Other Words for Home, The Shape of Thunder, A Rover’s Story, and more. Her work explores identity, belonging, and how being different can be what unites us.

In this episode, Jasmine shares what it was like growing up as a mixed kid and daughter of an immigrant in Ohio, her lightbulb moment while teaching sixth grade, and how Animorphs, surrealist art and a dash of Virginia Woolf shaped not only her voice as a writer, but also her commitment to living joyfully, and spreading joy to others.

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For her reading challenge, Read Global, Jasmine invites adult readers to step outside the familiar and read more broadly, beyond their own borders. Download the reading challenge below!

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This week's Beanstack Featured Librarian is Cassie Owens Moore, a middle school librarian in South Carolina at Seneca Middle School. She shares how a group of fired-up sixth graders convinced her that Marvel and manga deserved their own sections of her library, and why building a great library means working for your students.

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Listen to the full episode, "Our Job is to Live: Jasmine Warga on Belonging and Radical Hope," on Apple, Spotify, Castbox, or wherever you get your podcasts. Like what you hear? Please leave a 5-star review, subscribe, and share with someone who will enjoy it!

Whatever you do, keep reading!

Contents

Chapter 1: Where Are You From?
Chapter 2: The Other Side of Home
Chapter 3: So Many Questions
Chapter 4: The Hours
Chapter 5: I Am The Mars Rover
Chapter 6: No One’s Gonna Read This Book
Chapter 7: Radical Hope
Chapter 8: Reading Challenge
Chapter 9: Beanstack Featured Librarian

Author Reading Challenge

Download the free reading challenge worksheet, or view the challenge materials on our helpdesk.

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