Drita, My Homegirl [Hardcover]

Jenny Lombard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 16, 2006 | Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

Drita and her family come to New York as refugees from war-torn Kosovo. Even though she barely speaks English, Drita can’t wait to start school and make a new best friend. But her new classmates don’t make it easy, teasing her about virtually everything.The worst is Maxie, a tough African-American girl whose sassy attitude hides a painful secret.

When Maxie takes things too far, their teacher assigns Maxie a paper on Drita and her journey to America from Kosovo. Suddenly, Maxie realizes she and Drita have more in common than she thought. And when Drita’s mother gets sick, there’s only one person who can help—Drita’s new homegirl.

A sensitively written story of two worlds coming together, Drita, My Homegirl touchingly explores the effects of war on a family and how friendship sometimes appears in the unlikeliest places.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 3-5–In alternating chapters, two fourth graders tell about the development of their unlikely friendship. Drita is a refugee from Kosova who, along with her family, is finally joining her father in New York City. In a cramped apartment and without connections or language skills, her mother sinks into a serious depression, while the girl struggles to find her place in school. Maxie, a precocious African-American child who lives with her supportive grandmother and her widowed father, struggles, too; shes in constant trouble in school for her comedic efforts since her mother died. When she sees a news report on Kosova, she decides to do a project on Albanian refugees, focusing on Drita. The girls find common ground, and when Maxies grandmother, a retired nurse, sweeps in to rescue Dritas mother, the families forge a bond as well. Maxies attempts to help Drita understand American ways are touching, and Dritas understanding of her friends loss is a testament to the emotional intelligence of children. Dritas story resonates with the bravery of an individual determined to become part of her new country while retaining the love of her homeland. Maxie has the cocky voice of a girl who is trying too hard to disguise her pain. More a tale of the power of love than of refugees, this first novel is imbued with the language and customs of Kosova as well as the efforts of a family attempting to regain balance. Read it aloud to groups and let the conversations begin.–Susan Oliver, Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library System, FL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 3-5. 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. Most moving is Drita's surprise about the ethnic mix in her classroom; in Albania a wall separates Serb students from Muslims. The message connecting schoolyard bullying with war is heavy, but the girls' growing friendship and respect for one another is poignant, as is the climax when Maxie presents her report about what Drita left behind. Steer slightly older children wanting more about the Balkan war to Nadja Halilbegovich's My Childhood under Fire: A Sarejevo Diary (2006). Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (March 16, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399243801
• ISBN-13: 978-0399243806
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,236,365 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Becoming homegirls, February 7, 2008

By 

Judy K. Polhemus "Book Collector" (Louisiana) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Drita, My Homegirl (Hardcover)

I just found another book to add to my "good books" shelf. That's what one of the girls in our PK3-8 school call this particular section in the library. This is where I keep books I think will appeal to girls third through eighth grade. The top of this low bookcase is about shoulder height, just right for browsing books about girls. This is my story, I am the librarian.

A first novel, "Drita" is the story of a ten-year old girl who comes with her mother, grandmother, and brother from war-torn Kosova (that is how it is spelled in her country) to join the father, who has worked and saved a year to bring his family over. The females are dismayed by the dirty, unkempt apartment and spend their first few hours cleaning it.

The story shifts viewpoint every other chapter. Chapter two begins with Maxie's story. Maxie is African-America with grief in her heart over the loss of her mother in an auto accident two years previously. Wise Ms. Salvato, their fourth grade teacher, gets Maxie interested in Drita and assigns Drita's journey and country to Maxie and Drita as their big project.

The two girls do become friends in a most unlikely way. What a sweet and kind friendship it becomes, which, of course, is the main plot. Reverberating around these two are family members whose lives are touched and changed in such loving ways because of this friendship.

This book is highly recommended for friendship, geography and history lessons, resolution of family problems for both girls, and the sheer joy of the story. No girl could ask for better!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Drita and Maxie friend 4ever, May 17, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Drita, My Homegirl (Hardcover)

A girl named Drita came to New York City from Kosova because of a war in her homeland. She starts school the day after she arrives in NY. She finds it quite complicated to make friends, when all of a sudden, she meets an African-American girl named Maxie. Maxie doesn't like Drita at first but they soon find out they have alot in common. What changes Maxie's mind about Drita? Why don't you read this book by Jenny Lombard,a NYC school teacher, and find out? It is her 1st novel for children. I enjoyed it very much.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what I needed!, May 22, 2011

By 

pokey - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Drita, My Homegirl (Paperback)

I am an ESOL teacher. This a great book for any teacher who has students from other countries. It is written in first person from Drita's point of view and Maxie's point of view. Great book for 2nd or 3rd grade class. The book was in good shape. It arrived within 5 days.