Drita, My Homegirl
Jenny Lombard, . . Putnam, $15.99 (135pp) ISBN 978-0-399-24380-6
Lombard's debut novel unfolds through the first-person narratives of two fourth-grade classmates with very different backgrounds. Drita has just arrived in New York City from a devastated Kosovo and is worried about her depressed mother, who spends days alone in her room. She misses her best friend from home and longs to make a new friend. But Drita knows little English, and the girls at school make no effort to get to know her—including outspoken, impulsive Maxie, an African-American whose brassy demeanor cloaks a deep sadness. Maxie keeps secret the fact that her mother died three years earlier in a car accident, a loss from which she is still reeling. In a poignant encounter, Maxie's wise grandmother, acknowledging that her granddaughter's acting-out is related to her grief, advises the girl, "You got to start to let her go" and to "Let someone in." Maxie reaches out to Drita, and the two grow closer as Maxie researches Kosovo for her school project. Maxie's slang-riddled voice comes across credibly, yet passages representing Drita's thoughts sometimes seem stiff or awkward (e.g., "When
Reviewed on: 03/27/2006
Genre: Children's
Open Ebook - 144 pages - 978-1-101-20054-4
Open Ebook - 144 pages - 978-1-4362-2683-7
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Prebound-Glued - 135 pages - 978-0-7569-8919-4