Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel

“What’s the mat­ter with the new boy?” won­ders third grad­er Dya­monde Daniel. Free always looks angry and nev­er talks in class, only com­mu­ni­cat­ing in grunts. Dya­monde knows what it feels like to be new: her par­ents’ divorce caused her to relo­cate from Brook­lyn to Wash­ing­ton Heights. Yet her friend­ly over­tures are rebuffed each time. When Free scares one of the lit­tle kids in the lunch­room, Dya­monde has had enough and con­fronts him about his grouchy behav­ior. It turns out that the class­mates have much in com­mon, includ­ing their unusu­al names and a long­ing for their old schools and friends. Dya­monde, smart, assertive, wild-haired, and “skin­nier than half a tooth­pick,” is a mem­o­rable main char­ac­ter, though she some­times sounds too mature for her years. Yet her actions and feel­ings ring true. Christie’s illus­tra­tions flesh out the char­ac­ters, and along with pat­terned page bor­ders, con­tribute child appeal. This is a promis­ing start to a new series of tran­si­tion­al chap­ter books; sug­gest it to read­ers who enjoyed Karen English’s Nik­ki & Deja (Clar­i­on, 2008), anoth­er ear­ly chap­ter book about the ups and downs of friend­ship between two African-Amer­i­can stu­dents.” (Jack­ie Partch, School Library Jour­nal)