Between Madison and Palmetto
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Overview
Maizon and Margaret are both living on Madison Street again, but somehow everything seems different. Maizon has changed since her semester at boarding school, and Margaret has become withdrawn since her father's death. Added into the mix is Caroline, a white girl who's new in town and threatens Maizon and Margaret's closeness, and Maizon's father, who left her as a baby but shows up unexpectedly just when she thought her life couldn't get any more mixed up.In the third book of Jacqueline Woodson's trilogy, we see how growing up makes Maizon and Margaret's lives-and their friendship-a lot more complicated.
When Margaret's best friend Maizon returns from boarding school and joins her in the eighth grade, they try to resume their friendship while dealing with personal problems and watching their Brooklyn neighborhood undergo changes.
Synopsis
Margaret and Maizon are back together on Madison Street, but their friendship is different now. Margaret needs more time alone, and it's not just the two of them any more-their new neighbor and classmate, Caroline, has become part of their lives. But that seems minor next to what is about to happen to Maizon. . . .
"Woodson's candid assessments of relations between blacks and whites are as searching as ever, and her characters just as commanding." (Publishers Weekly)
Publishers Weekly
Completing the trilogy begun with Last Summer with Maizon and Maizon at Blue Hill , Woodson revisits her heroines Margaret and Maizon as their close friendship is newly tested. Undergoing the transformations of adolescence, they also find their Brooklyn neighborhood changing, with new buildings erected and white people, such as Carolyn Berg, moving in. Lately, Maizon has been spending more time with Carolyn, and Margaret feels excluded. Developing physically, Margaret also feels overweight, a misperception that leads to symptoms of bulimia and a near-starvation diet. Maizon, meanwhile, struggles with the sudden appearance of her father, who has contacted her for the first time since he left her with her grandmother following her mother's death in childbirth. As in the previous novels, Woodson stresses the importance of friends and family, but the impact here is somewhat diluted by the movie-of-the-week problems that challenge the two girls. Her candid assessments of relations between blacks and whites are as searching as ever, however, and her characters just as commanding. Ages 10-14. (Nov.)