They may be best friends, but Zuri Jackson and Danitra Brown respond very differently to the start of school. For Zuri, there are so many things to ponder -- a new teacher who replaced the old one she liked so much, passing math, and worrying about her mother's health. But for Danitra, the only real deal is being true to herself, having fun, and supporting Zuri in any way she can. Multiple Coretta Scott King award winners Nikki Grimes and E. B. Lewis have poured their best into Danitra Brown, Class Clown . This third book starring Zuri and Danitra speaks to everyone who has faced the trials of a new school year. Starred Review. Grade 3-5–Best friends Danitra and Zuri are back for a new school year and a new teacher. Miss Volchek gives us quizzes/with no warning in advance,/and still Danitra tells us/that we should give her a chance. Challenges arrive for Zuri–fears about passing math and worry about her mother's illness. Even singing solo with the glee club adds a level of anxiety to her days. Confident Danitra, the One of a kind…Original thinker…/Matchless tutor/Matchless friend provides support, friendship, and her own unique styles to her advice. Grimes's text, a running sequence of titled verses, neatly voices the critical self-examination of preadolescent girls. Lewis's detailed watercolor paintings create energy of their own, revealing the girls' emotions with visualization of both joyous expressions and thoughtful moments. Theirs is a friendship with the closeness of siblings, revealed for readers in a natural flow of events and Zuri's narration. A must-buy for all libraries and a must-read for all Danitra and Zuri fans. –Mary Elam, Forman Elementary School, Plano, TX Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. K-Gr. 3. "School is in and I remember / How much I detest September." Kids will recognize the first-day-back anxiety in the third book about Zuri and her best friend, Danitra Brown. Unlike Danitra Brown Leaves Town (2002), which was in free verse, this narrative, delivered by Zuri, is in simple rhyme. Lewis contributes the illustrations here--beautiful, expressive full-page watercolors of kids in the classroom, schoolyard, lunchroom, washroom, and library. Their new, bossy teacher separates the friends, but Danitra is still there for Zuri, clowning and distracting the class when Zuri messes up, and helping her study for the math test. There's a serious undertone to the fun (Zuri's mother is very ill), but there's nothing reverential about the friendship, and Lewis shows Danitra as her own person, bespectacled and exuberant, with a "one of a kind hairdo" and "singular style." Hazel Rochman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved “A must-buy for all libraries and a must-read for all Danitra and Zuri fans.” - School Library Journal (starred review) They may be best friends, but Zuri Jackson and Danitra Brown respond very differently to the start of school. For Zuri, there are so many things to ponder -- a new teacher who replaced the old one she liked so much, passing math, and worrying about her mother's health. But for Danitra, the only real deal is being true to herself, having fun, and supporting Zuri in any way she can. Multiple Coretta Scott King award winners Nikki Grimes and E. B. Lewis have poured their best into Danitra Brown, Class Clown . This third book starring Zuri and Danitra speaks to everyone who has faced the trials of a new school year. Nikki Grimes is a New York Times bestselling author and recipient of the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, the ALAN Award for significant contributions to young adult literature, the Children’s Literature Legacy Award, and the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. She is the author of Coretta Scott King Award winner Bronx Masquerade and the recipient of five Coretta Scott King Author Honors. Her recent books include Printz Honor and Sibert Honor Book Ordinary Hazards ; Between the Lines ,   a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults title; the much-acclaimed Garvey’s Choice ; ALA Notables Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance  and Southwest Sunrise ; Kamala Harris: Rooted in Justice ; and Garvey in the Dark . Nikki lives in Corona, California.   E. B. Lewis , award-winning illustrator and fine artist, has illustrated more than seventy-five books for children, including the Caldecott Honor winner Coming on Home Soon . He won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for Talkin’ About Bessie and has earned the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award four times. After graduating from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Lewis taught art in public schools for twelve years. He now teaches at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Visit eblewis.com.