BETWEEN MADISON AND PALMETTO

In the third in the trilogy begun with Last Summer with Maizon (1990), the two Brooklyn eighth-graders are attending a private academy.

Though both still spend time with neighbors like Ms. Dell and her daughter Hattie, new friends and the pressures of growing up tend to divide the two best friends. Margaret, dismayed by her body's development, is drifting into anorexia (rather easily reversed by the concern of those who love her) and interested in Bo, who attends an all-black boys' school. Maizon is spending time with Caroline, a white girl new to the neighborhood, though in the end Caroline and Margaret form their own bond; and Maizon's father- -who left her as a baby with Grandma after her mother's death— turns up to make friends with his unwilling daughter. In simple, delicately tuned language, each interaction is evoked in dialogue that explores the choices these thoughtful characters confront, while their close-knit community, made up of people who truly care about each other, comes nicely to life.

The episodic events don't quite add up to a plot; still, a likable visit with two good friends—whose fine jacket portrait by the Dillons will be a sure hook.