Rich

Audio Book Review: “This sec­ond book in the Dya­monde Daniel series begins with Dya­monde and Free debat­ing the def­i­n­i­tion of pover­ty. Free thinks his fam­i­ly is poor because he can no longer buy all of the things that he wants, while Dya­monde argues that poor would be hav­ing to go with­out the things he needs, like food and shel­ter. Because Free is new­ly inter­est­ed in earn­ing mon­ey, he jumps at the chance to enter a poet­ry con­test that promis­es a cash prize to the win­ner. New stu­dent Damaris also enters the con­test, much to Dyamonde’s sur­prise. As Dya­monde gets to know Damaris and learns the secret that Damaris has been keep­ing, she gains a new under­stand­ing of pover­ty and its effect on people.

“The time­ly top­ic and fast-mov­ing plot will keep kids engaged in the sto­ry. The issues addressed will res­onate with many chil­dren and are made all the more acces­si­ble as seen through the eyes of such inter­est­ing, well-devel­oped char­ac­ters. Their voic­es real­ly shine, espe­cial­ly as brought to life by author Nik­ki Grimes’s nar­ra­tion.” (Kel­ly Han­na­han, Sound Com­men­tary)