The Broken Bike Boy and the Queen of 33rd Street

I am a queen. Spoiled, smart, pretty, privileged, and mean, fifth-grader Queen Marie Rousseau has barely a friend at school-even the teacher dislikes her. Things change when she meets her knight in shining armor-the new kid, Leroy. He smells like moldy clothes and rides a rusty, broken bike, but he shows her a whole new world near his neighborhood projects. Queen knows Leroy is a fake when he says he is an African prince from Senegal, but then he brings gold coins and an elephant tusk to school. Are they real? Where did he get them? The mystery is fun, and even though the solution is a bit contrived and message-driven, Queen's arrogant, first-person, present-tense narrative brings readers along as she takes a voyage around the world that changes her. Queen's discovery, We are all from Africa, makes a great climax.