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press kit
mini bio

Jasmine Florentine likes to make stuff. This encompasses everything from making ticklish robots to designing game fields for robotics competitions, inventing a sensor for a brain-scanning helmet, drawing comic books, and of course, writing books.  She has a BS and an MS from MIT in Mechanical Engineering, and is passionate about showing everyone how amazing STEM is. Hex Allen and The Clanksmiths is her first book.

Short bio

Jasmine Florentine likes to make stuff. This encompasses everything from making ticklish robots to designing game fields for robotics competitions, inventing a sensor for a brain-scanning helmet, drawing comic books (such as her upcoming graphic novel, The Adventures of Maker Girl and Professor Smarts), and of course, writing books. 

 

She studied Mechanical Engineering at MIT and is passionate about showing everyone how amazing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) are. Hex Allen and the Clanksmiths is her first book.

 

Visit her online and check out more STEM tutorials and resources at www.jasmineflorentine.com.

Long bio

Jasmine Florentine is an author-illustrator, freelance mechanical design engineer, and STEM content creator. She is passionate about combining technology, art, and storytelling to engage kids with STEM and engineering in fun and creative ways.

She received an MS and a BS from MIT in mechanical engineering, where she focused on product design. Before moving abroad, she worked as a mechanical engineer and visual artist for FIRST—a non-profit that runs robotics competitions for students. She's also worked at a robotics company and led the mechanical design on a brain-scanning race car helmet.

As a STEM content creator and freelancer, she's designed functioning paper robots, hosted teacher workshops, created multimedia lesson plans, and even co-wrote a live-action role-playing game to engage pre-teen girls with computer science.
 

Her first book, Hex Allen and the Clanksmiths (The Innovation Press, 2022), is a middle-grade STEM fantasy quest. She is currently working on The Adventures of Maker Girl and Professor Smarts (Candlewick/MIT Kids, 2024 and 2025), a STEM-themed graphic novel.

 

When she is not building robots, drawing cartoons, or championing STEM, Jasmine loves hiking and rambling at length about her current favorite book, usually at the same time.

Visit her online and check out more STEM tutorials and resources at www.jasmineflorentine.com.

Contact Info

E-mail: jasmine (at) jasmineflorentine.com

Agent: Jemiscoe Chambers-Black of Andrea Brown Literary Agency

LinkedIn: JasmineFlorentine

Twitter: @jrflorentine

Instagram: @jrflorentine

Books
Hex Allen AND the Clanksmiths
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Short Book Blurb:
Considered a misfit by her society because she can't cast even the simplest of spells, Hex Allen sets out after a legendary dragon who grants a single wish every century. Along the way, she meets a pair of Clanksmiths whose secret STEM-based skills challenge her dream of a "normal" life.

Full Book Blurb:

STEM meets magic in this new middle grade adventure series from an MIT graduate.

Hex Allen can't do magic - a huge problem when everything from lights to locks is powered by simple spells that everyone can do. After years of feeling useless, Hex seizes the chance to change her future by journeying to the Wishing Wyrm, a legendary dragon that will grant a single wish once a century. Unfortunately, Hex isn't the only one after the wish, and every rival wish hunter has magic on their side. Every rival except the Clanksmiths, Cam and Fuse. Like Hex, they can't do magic, but they've learned to build clank, creations made using the mysterious, forgotten arts of science and engineering.

After a fairy fiasco throws Hex and the Clanksmiths together, they agree to cooperate - for the time being. With the Clanksmiths' know-how and Hex's creativity, they outsmart monsters with everything from LEDs to electromagnets to water balloon launchers. But as they race to the Wishing Wyrm, Hex must decide between her friendship with the Clanksmiths and the wish that would give her a normal, magical life.

Pages from Hex's design notebook provide step-by-step project instructions for aspiring Clanksmiths.

Ages: 8-14

Pages: 256 (Hardcover Jacketed Middle Grade Novel with B/W Illustrations)

Publisher: The Innovation Press

Illustrator: Ebony Glenn

Publication Date: November 29, 2022 (original pub date of September 2020 postponed due to the pandemic)

ISBN: 978-1943147779

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