Drita, My Homegirl

by Jenny Lombard

Drita, 10, is a Muslim Albanian refugee from Kosovo and a stranger in her fourth-grade classroom in Brooklyn, New York.  Maxie is African- American, one of the in-crowd that wants nothing to do with the newcomer---until her social studies teacher charges her with interviewing Drita about her story. The two girls speak in alternating first-person narratives that reveal both their differences and their connections: Drita's mother is having a breakdown; Maxie cannot confront her grief about her mother's death in a car accident three years before.  Brought together in this way, the two girls overcome barriers of language and custom to resolve issues they both have in common.

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