Book Review: One Crazy Summer

 

1.    BIBLIOGRAPHY

Williams-Garcia, Rita. 2010. ONE CRAZY SUMMER. New York, NY: Harper Collins Children’s Books. ISBN: 9780060760885

2. PLOT SUMMARY

This is a story about three sisters that are forced to go visit their mother in Oakland for the summer. They had never met their mother before and were excited to visit sunny California, where they had been dreaming about going to Disneyland and having fun in the sun. When they first arrive in Oakland, they learn that it’s not going to be the summer that they have been dreaming about.

After meeting their mother for the first time, they find out that she is not the lovable mom that they had hoped for and that they basically have to care for themselves. The sisters: Delphine, Vonetta and Fern also learn more about the Black Panthers and how their mother is involved in their cause. Being forced to attend the Black Panther summer camp, the girls learn what it’s like to stand up for what you believe in and get to attend their first rally. Will the girl’s mother even learn to love them or will she always hold them at a distance? You must read to find out what happens!

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Williams-Garcia painted an accurate picture of what life was like for African American’s in the 60s from a child’s perspective. This story takes place in 1968 in Oakland, California. During this time, the Black Panther party was a huge movement for African American rights. Throughout the story, the sister’s learn about famous African Americans such as Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Huey Newton (founder of the Black Panther party). There were a lot of references to these men when the girls had to attend the Black Panther summer camp. During this camp, the girls had to organize and stack the Black Panther Newspaper and even make signs for the rally that stated “Free Huey”. I felt that Williams-Garcia did a great job incorporating factual events into the story and still made the book fun to read.

The main character, Delphine, is a very strong willed 11 year old that fits the role of the protagonist. Delphine was told by her grandmother and father to take care of her sisters and that was her goal throughout the entire story. She is a very lovable character that is hard working and reliable. Her sisters, Fern and Vonetta, are extremely funny characters and can easily remind the reader of what it was like to have siblings as a child. I felt that Williams-Garcia did a great job telling the reader of what it was like in 1968 and not sugar-coating the topic. Because of the content of the book, I would recommend this to students in grades 5 and up. It would be helpful for the reader to have some background in US History before reading so that they are able to make connections throughout the story.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Coretta Scott King Award Winner

Newberry Honor Book

Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL STARRED REVIEW: Starred Review. is 1968, and three black sisters from Brooklyn have been put on a California-bound plane by their father to spend a month with their mother, a poet who ran off years before and is living in Oakland. It's the summer after Black Panther founder Huey Newton was jailed and member Bobby Hutton was gunned down trying to surrender to the Oakland police, and there are men in berets shouting "Black Power" on the news. Delphine, 11, remembers her mother, but after years of separation she's more apt to believe what her grandmother has said about her, that Cecile is a selfish, crazy woman who sleeps on the street. At least Cecile lives in a real house, but she reacts to her daughters' arrival without warmth or even curiosity. Instead, she sends the girls to eat breakfast at a center run by the Black Panther Party and tells them to stay out as long as they can so that she can work on her poetry. Over the course of the next four weeks, Delphine and her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, spend a lot of time learning about revolution and staying out of their mother's way. Emotionally challenging and beautifully written, this book immerses readers in a time and place and raises difficult questions of cultural and ethnic identity and personal responsibility. With memorable characters (all three girls have engaging, strong voices) and a powerful story, this is a book well worth reading and rereading.

BOOKLIST STARRED REVIEW: Eleven-year-old Delphine has only a few fragmented memories of her mother, Cecile, a poet who wrote verses on walls and cereal boxes, played smoky jazz records, and abandoned the family in Brooklyn after giving birth to her third daughter. In the summer of 1968, Delphine’s father decides that seeing Cecile is “something whose time had come,” and Delphine boards a plane with her sisters to Cecile’s home in Oakland. What they find there is far from their California dreams of Disneyland and movie stars. “No one told y’all to come out here,” Cecile says. “No one wants you out here making a mess, stopping my work.” Like the rest of her life, Cecile’s work is a mystery conducted behind the doors of the kitchen that she forbids her daughters to enter. For meals, Cecile sends the girls to a Chinese restaurant or to the local, Black Panther–run community center, where Cecile is known as Sister Inzilla and where the girls begin to attend youth programs. Regimented, responsible, strong-willed Delphine narrates in an unforgettable voice, but each of the sisters emerges as a distinct, memorable character, whose hard-won, tenuous connections with their mother build to an aching, triumphant conclusion. Set during a pivotal moment in African American history, this vibrant novel shows the subtle ways that political movements affect personal lives; but just as memorable is the finely drawn, universal story of children reclaiming a reluctant parent’s love.

5. CONNECTIONS (Recommended for children grades 5-7)

For more books by Rita Williams-Garcia, check out:

Williams-Garcia, Rita. BLUE TIGHTS. ISBN: 9780140380453

Williams-Garcia, Rita. LIKE SISTERS ON THE HOMEFRONT. ISBN: 9780140385618

Williams-Garcia, Rita. CATCHING WILD WAIYUUZEE. Ill. by Mike Reed. ISBN: 9781416961413

**Have students write about the craziest summer that they have ever had and have them share with the class.

**As a class, you can have students come up with their own rally focusing on something that they all believe in. For example, you could focus on global warming and taking care of our earth. Students can write plays, sing songs, write poetry and even make signs for the cause.