DANITRA BROWN LEAVES TOWN

Fans of this author-illustrator team’s Meet Danitra Brown (1994) will welcome their latest effort about Danitra and her best friend, Zuri Jackson.

Told as a series of 13 poems and letters about the joys of summer and the strong bond of true friendship, this will resonate with many young readers who have savored the pleasures of Fourth of July fireworks, picnics and games, block parties, starry summer nights, and family reunions. It also explores honestly the feelings of sadness, self-doubt, and resentment that a child experiences when a cherished friend goes away, even for a short time. Here, Danitra goes off to the country for a family reunion and Zuri remains at home in the city. While Danitra brims with excitement, Zuri worries and quietly seethes that her friend is “leaving me, and loving it.” To her surprise, though, Zuri discovers that life without Danitra isn’t so bad after all. She makes a new friend and brims herself—with exuberance and renewed self-confidence—when she dances up a storm at a block party and beats the boys at softball. In their back-and-forth letters, the girls describe their new experiences and the fun each is having, but nothing compares to the joy they feel when they reunite at Danitra’s homecoming. Grimes’s poems read and flow well, and Cooper’s paintings simply burst with energy and expressiveness.

How nice for Zuri and for young readers that Danitra has returned.