![]() ![]() She and her two friends finally talk it out and while they’re playing their favorite game of double Dutch, Dana makes up a verse-‘If you want to say ain’t, So people won’t faint, And laugh and think you’re quaint, Just say it at home.” The wonderfully realistic oil illustrations are reminiscent of the fifties (all of the girls wear skirts-even when jumping rope) but are static and posed. When her teacher arrives, Dana discovers that her godmother and teacher are the best of friends and speak in the familiar language (replete with aints) that she and her friends do. ![]() The last straw is her teacher’s announcement that she will be visiting each student’s home, and she will begin with Dana. ![]() Although she does well in school, she has no friends and her best friends are never at the corner anymore. Her classmates ignore her but she has the gumption to answer the last math problem when no one else can. Dana misses the “running jive and banter” of her friends and the teacher asks her not to use “ain’t” in school. Her godmother insists she go to the new school in her best party dress but the other girls are dressed in skirts with matching sweater sets. But it means being separated from her best friends. ![]() Dana lives in Harlem in the 1950s and is smart-so smart that she is selected to go to an integrated school. ![]()
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