Rita Williams-Garcia

Eleven-year-old Delphine has it together. Even though her mother, Cecile, abandoned her and her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, seven years ago. Even though her father and Big Ma will send them from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to stay with Cecile for the summer. And even though Delphine will have to take care of her sisters, as usual, and learn the truth about the missing pieces of the past. When the girls arrive in Oakland in the summer of 1968, Cecile wants nothing to do with them. She makes them eat Chinese takeout dinners, forbids them to enter her kitchen, and never explains the strange visitors with Afros and black berets who knock on her door. Rather than spend time with them, Cecile sends Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern to a summer camp sponsored by a revolutionary group, the Black Panthers, where the girls get a radical new education. Set during one of the most tumultuous years in recent American history, one crazy summer is the heartbreaking, funny tale of three girls in search of the mother who abandoned them—an unforgettable story told by a distinguished author of books for children and teens, Rita Williams-Garcia.

One Crazy Summer

In the summer of 1968, after traveling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.

Sarah Sammis

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia covers the summer trip of Delphine and her younger sisters, Vonette and Fern to visit their mother in Oakland, California. Big Ma has declared it time for Cecile to act like a mother to her daughters, years after leaving them, if even for a few weeks in the summer.

Delphine (the oldest, and narrator) expects the California of television and movies — beaches, Disneyland and summer heat. She gets instead, Oakland — fog, hills and the beach is a long bus ride away. She also gets a distant mother, greasy food from the local Chinese takeout, and days spent at the Center — run by the local Black Panthers. It is nothing Delphine expected or wants. All she wants to do is take her sisters home.

One Crazy Summer is one of those books I'd like to see made part of the California curriculum. Although it's historical fiction, it touches on so many issues and themes that are still relevant. It's also a well crafted story with believable, positive characters.

The sequel, P.S. Be Eleven comes out later in 2013.

Jeannette Ordas

I love a good JFic especially when it involves kids running around on their own in a big urban setting and this book has that in spades, plus a backstory about the Black Panthers and a mom who can't be a mom. Pretty great.

Ashley Wendt

3.5 I did struggle getting through this one a little bit. I did find myself immersed in the story, and as a mother, I cried at the end. This was definitely an interesting perspective for me, and I think it’s got such an important message about race and a little bit more insight on the incredible things the BPP did for their communities that were often overshadowed by the more extreme actions & conflicts. I think for me, at times, I got bored with the story though and had to force myself to continue on...it’s not a very long book and so there is only so much depth, as it tends to go for some middle grade books. I am still interested to pick up the next book and see how our main characters grow and go back to New York to adapt back to their life after everything they had experienced, seen and heard.

Jeni Enjaian

It has been a very long time since I have encountered a book that gripped me from page one and did not let go until the end, a book that if someone asked about what I was reading, I could barely keep from overwhelming them in a barrage of words of love for the book. Williams-Garcia creates an amazing narrative that tells about serious, significant issues in the world through the eyes of a child in a whole heartedly believable manner.

I recommend this book to everyone on the planet.

Daryl Houston

I wasn't wowed by it, but I'm glad to have read it and will plan on reading the other two in the series.

Makena Whitaker

I loved this book!! Means so much to me I have 3 sisters.

Tania Joana da Silva Monteiro

Not exactly what I expected as I thought we would be spending more time with the Black Panthers, but still a very interesting story and I loved the sister's relationship and the complexity of the different characters. But I admit I need to research more as I am pretty sure somethings I didn't pay enough attention because I don't have the knowledge to recognize its importance.

In this Newbery Honor novel, New York Times bestselling author Rita Williams-Garcia tells the story of three sisters who travel to Oakland, California, in 1968 to meet the mother who abandoned them. "This vibrant and moving award-winning novel has heart to spare."* Eleven-year-old Delphine is like a mother to her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern. She's had to be, ever since their mother, Cecile, left them seven years ago for a radical new life in California. But when the sisters arrive from Brooklyn to spend the summer with their mother, Cecile is nothing like they imagined. While the girls hope to go to Disneyland and meet Tinker Bell, their mother sends them to a day camp run by the Black Panthers. Unexpectedly, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern learn much about their family, their country, and themselves during one truly crazy summer. This moving, funny novel won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction and the Coretta Scott King Award and was a National Book Award Finalist. Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern's story continues in P.S. Be Eleven and Gone Crazy in Alabama. Readers who enjoy Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham and Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming will find much to love in One Crazy Summer. This novel was the first featured title for Marley D’s Reading Party, launched after the success of #1000BlackGirlBooks. Maria Russo, in a New York Times list of "great kids' books with diverse characters," called it "witty and original." *Brightly, in Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich's article "Knowing Our History to Build a Brighter Future: Books to Help Kids Understand the Fight for Racial Equality"

One Crazy Summer

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