About the Book

How to Hurry Up Slowly encourages children of all ages to march to the beat of their own drummer at their own tempo. It's fitting, then, that Jasmine the snail had a unique journey to the page. Jasmine’s creator, Paula Smith, first dreamed her up in 2015 in a MassArt animation class. Paula imagined the critter as the mature protagonist of an Adult Swim-inspired project. But once the class and the project were behind her, Paula could not shake little Jasmine from her mind. Using the skills she’d developed in a children’s book illustration course, she conceived of a new story for Jasmine. She finished writing and illustrating How to Hurry Up Slowly in 2019 before publishing the work the following year. She hoped that this joyful cartoon snail would remind young readers to embrace their individual journeys.