The friends

Phyllisia has just moved to Harlem from the West Indies, and she is harassed and bullied by her classmates for the way she talks and for being a teacher's pet. She wants to make a friend, but the only one who will be friends with her is a desperately poor girl named Edith. Edith does befriend Phyl, and, with Edith's support, the bullying is stopped, and things get better for Phyllisia. But at home Phyl has problems, too, with a dad who strictly disciplines Phyl and her sister, and a mom who is very ill.

The Friends is a cruelly honest depiction of life for a young girl, new to New York, with family troubles, who is made stronger and better through a friendship with a girl who has deep troubles of her own.

A 1001 Children's Book You Must Read.