Danitra Brown Leaves Town by Nikki Grimes

Bibliography
Grimes, Nikki. 2002. Danitra Brown Leaves Town. New York: HarperCollins.

Illustrator: Floyd Cooper
ISBN: 0-688-13156-5

Summary
It's summer vacation and Danitra is off to visit family. Danitra and her best friend, Zuri stay in touch through a series of letters, where they record their thoughts in poetry.

Critical Analysis
Author, Nikki Grimes, and illustrator, Floyd Coooper, do an excellent job of preparing a story children can connect with. Through the letters the girls write each other and the colorful illustrations, the reader begins to understand each character.

The illustrations provide the primary evidence of this being a story about African-Americans. The illustrations show the two main characters to be young, average African-American girls. Their clothing is typical of girls their age, what distinguishes them as African-American is the dark skin tone and appropriate hair texture and hair style. The hairstyles of other characters in the illustrations are accurate, as well. For example, accurate representation of African-Americans is seen near the end of the story when Danitra is visiting with her extended family. The boys' hairstyles are clipped close to their heads and one of the girls' hair is braided and fastened with beads. Both types of hairstyles are typical of modern day African-Americans.

There are only a few African-American markers in the text of the story. For example, Danitra describes her mom with the "pretty brownness of her eyes and face." Although, without the illustrations to define the looks of the characters, mother's face could be a white, yet summer-tanned face. The other African-American marker in this story is Zuri's name. Zuri is a Swahilian name meaning beautiful as noted on http://www.namesite.com/index.php, a site that lists African names and meanings.

Through the ease of the text and the liveliness of the illustrations, both author and illustrator do a fantastic job relaying a message about friendship any child can relate to.

Review Excerpts
Booklist announces, "The best friends from Meet Danitra Brown (1994) celebrate summer apart and together in this warm story, told in simple free verse with big, joyful oil-wash paintings"

Catherine Threadgill in School Library Journal reports, "Cooper's photo-realist artwork in soft hues against glowing backdrops is a lovely complement to the girls' many moods."

Reviews accessed through Follett's Titlewave at http://www.titlewave.com/login/?side

Connections
Danitra Brown Leaves Town is a good accompaniment to Meet Danitra Brown and Danitra Brown, Class Clown by Nikki Grimes. These books would be perfect for a girls' reading club.

A third grade student explains, "I love the Danitra Brown books. They are my favorite." ~Briana