Danitra Brown, Class Clown

Dan­i­tra Brown is back and so is her friend Zuri. Dan­i­tra is as feisty, loy­al and adven­tur­ous as always.She clowns around and diverts atten­tion when Zuri’s note is about to be made into a class joke. Her lunch­box is always filled with unusu­al and dar­ing food com­bi­na­tions. When Zuri is ter­ri­fied of fail­ing math, Dan­i­tra is there with help and encour­age­ment. Zuri’s voice is clear and lov­ing as the nar­ra­tor of the poems. Grimes is a mas­ter at select­ing just the right word or twist of phrase to evoke the spir­it of these two girls, while keep­ing the lan­guage sim­ple and direct. The rhymes are clever and live­ly and fit just right. The poems flow neat­ly as they tell the con­tin­u­ing sto­ry of Dan­i­tra, an “orig­i­nal thinker,” and a “match­less friend.” Lewis’s illus­tra­tions are spot on, cap­tur­ing the girls’ idio­syn­crasies and bring­ing them to life. A charmer. (Kirkus Reviews)