Customer Reviews

One Crazy Summer

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

When I heard that teen author Rita Williams-Garcia had written a middle grade novel for kids I wasn't moved one way or another. I don't read teen books. Couldn't say I knew much of the woman's work. When I heard that her book was about the Black Panthers, however, my interest was piqued. Black Panthers, eh? The one political group so difficult to write about that you can't find them in a single children's book (aside from "The Rock and the River" by Kekla Magoon, of course). So what was her take? How was she going to do it? But the thing is, "One Crazy Summer" is more than merely a historical tale. It's a story about family and friendships and self-sacrifice. There are so many ideas floating about this little novel that you'd think it would end up some kind of unholy mess. Instead, it's funny and painful and just a little bit brilliant. "One Crazy Summer" is a book that's going to earn itself a lot of fans. And a lot of them are going to be kids.

Eleven going on twelve Delphine has always kept a sharp eye on her little nine and seven-year-old sisters Vonetta and Fern. That's because their mother left them seven years ago and never came back again. "Cecile Johnson - mammal birth giver, alive, an abandoner - is our mother. A statement of fact." So when their father packs them on a plane and sends them to Oakland, California to see Cecile, their mom, the girls have no idea what to expect. Certainly they didn't think she'd just leave them in a kind of daycare over the summer run by members of the Black Panthers. And they probably didn't expect that their mother would want near to nothing to do with them, save the occasional meal and admonishment to keep out of her kitchen. Only Delphine knew what might happen, and she makes it her mission to not only take care of her siblings, no matter how crazy they make her, but also to negotiate the tricky waters that surround the woman who gave her up so long ago.

The whole reason this novel works is because author Rita Williams-Garcia has a fantastic story that also happens to meld seamlessly into the summer of 1968. I've been complaining for years that when it comes to the Black Panthers, there wasn't so much as a page of literature out there for kids on the topic (except the aforementioned "The Rock and the River" and even that's almost teen fare). Now "One Crazy Summer" is here. Certainly I don't know how Ms. Williams-Garcia set about writing the darn thing, but if she had stridently set about to teach without taking into consideration the essentials of good storytelling, this book would have sank like a stone. Instead, she infuses this tale with danger, characters you want to take a turn about the block with, and the heat of an Oakland sun.

I mean, take the people in this book! Someone once sold this story to me as "The Penderwicks meets the Black Panthers" and for the longest time I couldn't figure out why they`d said it. Then I started thinking back to the sisters. Ms. Wiliams-Garcia must have sisters. She must. How else to explain the dynamic between Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern? So it all became clear. If you love the family dynamics of "The Penderwicks", you'll probably find yourself loving the same thing here. Of course, when your heroine is an upright citizen like Delphine there is a danger of making her too goody goody to like. But this girl isn't like that. She has a duty that she believes in (taking care of her sisters) and she'll do it, even when they fight each other. Even when they team up against HER! The sheer unfairness of what Delphine has to handle, and the cheery lack of complaining (aside from the occasional and very understandable grumble) makes you care for her. Her interactions with her mother are what make you love her.

Because this mother is a pip. Cecile throws a wrench (and a couple of other metal objects besides, I'd wager) into the good guy/bad guy way of looking at things. For kids, she's a pretty clear-cut villain from page one onward. And adults who have enough historical understand to be clear on why she does some of the things she does still won't like her. I wouldn't even be surprised if some parents referred to her as the world's worst mother. She isn't really, but many a parent's ire will be raised when they see how she refuses to call her daughter Fern by her name out of spite, or refuses to so much as look her own daughters for a while. Heck, this may be the only book where the phrase, "Should have gone to Mexico to get rid of you when I had the chance," comes from the lips of a parental unit (not that any kid in the world would decipher what it means). Under normal circumstances, when you get a kid talking about the selfishness of their parent at the beginning of a book they turn out to be wrong in the end. So naturally I was waiting on tenterhooks for much of this book to see if Cecile would be perfectly redeemed by the story's end. Williams-Garcia never wraps anything up with a cute little bow, but she gives you closure with Cecile and maybe a drop of understanding. It's a far better solution.

Williams-Garcia will even use character development to place the story within the context of its time. The opinionated Big Ma who raised the three girls gives her thoughts on any matter rain or shine. Delphine then lists them, and kids are treated to a quickie encapsulation of life in '68. Pretty sneaky. Teaches `em when they're not looking. And one of those very topics is the Black Panther party. I was very pleased with how Williams-Garcia sought to define that group. She dispels misconceptions and rumors. Delphine herself often has to come to grips with her initial perceptions and the actual truths. As for the rest of the time period itself, little details spotted throughout the book make 1968 feel real. For example, the girls play a game where they count the number of black characters on television shows and commercials. Or the one time Delphine had felt truly scared, when a police officer in Alabama pulled her father over.

And, I'm sorry. You can make amazing, believable characters all day if you want to, but there's more to writing than just that. This writer doesn't just conjure up people. She has a way with a turn of a phrase. Three Black Panthers talking with Cecile are, "Telling it like it is, like talking was their weapon." Later Cecile tells her eldest daughter, "It wouldn't kill you to be selfish, Delphine." This book is a pleasure to cast your eyes over.

There is a moment near the end of the book when Fern recites a poem that is just so good that I couldn't seriously believe that a seven-year-old would be able to pull it off. So I mentioned this fact to a teacher and a librarian and found myself swiftly corrected. "Oh no," said the librarian. "Seven is when kids are at their most shockingly creative. It's only later that they start worrying about whether or not it's any good." So I'm willing to believe that Fern's poem could have happened. Otherwise, I certainly would have appreciated an Author's Note at the end with information about the Black Panthers for kids who wanted to learn more. And I was also left wondering where Delphine got her name. She spends a bit of time agonizing over that question, why her mother named her that, and never really finds out. Some kind of explanation there would have been nice.

It was teacher Monica Edinger who pointed out that "One Crazy Summer" pairs strangely well with "Cosmic" if you look at them in terms of fathers (on the "Cosmic" side) and mothers ("One Crazy Summer"'s focus). That's one theme for the book, but you could pluck out so many more if you wanted to. Race and family and forgiveness and growth. Everyone grows in this book. Everyone learns. But you'll have so much fun reading it you might not even notice. You might just find yourself happily ensconced in the world of Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern without ever wishing to leave it. If this is how Ms. Williams-Garcia writes books for kids, then she better stop writing all that teen fare and crank a couple more like this one. Kids are gonna dig it.

Ages 9-12.

In 1968, the world is in the midst of a great change. In April, Martin Luther King. Jr. is assassinated, and President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act. The Black Panthers organize to promote Black Power in Oakland. All the news reports and history books rarely talk about the silent witnesses to these great societal changes. Who were the children? How did history change their lives?

In the summer of 1968, eleven year old Delphine and her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, take a plane from Brooklyn to visit their mother Cecile in Oakland, California. Her father and Big Ma don't exactly approve of crazy Cecile, but keeping the children from their mother forever is not the solution either. As every good sister does, Delphine takes care of her younger sisters, especially now on this new journey and under instructions from her family to do so. Cecile isn't exactly a fairy tale mother. Rather than cook homemade meals, she gives them money to buy Chinese take-out. Cecile's kitchen is off limits. Strange men in Afros and black berets knock on her door demanding her assistance. Cecile sends her three daughters to a summer camp headed by the revolutionary Black Panthers. Delphine's summer in Oakland isn't exactly the kind of experience her teachers back home would expect in a "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" essay!

In ONE CRAZY SUMMER, readers see the historical changes through the eyes of Delphine. With humor, honesty, and innocence, Delphine comments on the events unfolding before her in the way only a child can. Delphine is quite conscious of the differences between blacks and whites in society, yet she is also a girl who responds from her heart rather than from slogans or mandates from others. Delphine is intelligent, taking the initiative to educate herself and to protect her sisters, yet she is still a little girl who longs for a mother to protect her. In ONE CRAZY SUMMER, Delphine embarks on a journey that will change her forever, not only in the societal changes she witnesses but also a journey that will bring her closer to understanding her mother and herself.

ONE CRAZY SUMMER takes a reader into the heart of history through the eyes of a child. What better way to tell the story to young readers? Delphine's voice sees what history books do not. Through Delphine's eyes, Rita Williams-Garcia gives life to memorable characters who inspire the imagination. Delphine's innocence and intelligence pinpoint the essentials in a way a self-conscious adult does not. Her humor brings a delightful, refreshing view of the world before her, a view that tempers some of the tragic events that accompany the struggles of this era. No matter what one's age, young reader, young adult or adult, ONE CRAZY SUMMER leaves a reader with the wonderful lasting and speechless satisfaction of entering a world created by a master storyteller. In addition to young readers, ONE CRAZY SUMMER is very highly recommended to all those adults, white and black, who like Delphine and this reader, witnessed the unfolding of the Civil Rights Movement in their hometowns. Quite simply, no other story has spoken to me, or the child that I was back then, as does this novel. ONE CRAZY SUMMER gives voice to all those things seen, all those emotions, which often remain unspoken to others decades later. When I reached the last line of the author's notes, a tear of joy filled my eye from the thankfulness that Rita Williams-Garcia put this story in words. ONE CRAZY SUMMER is an outstanding book, a book this reader expects to win several awards.

COURTESY OF BOOK ILLUMINATIONS

Gold Star Award Winner!

It's 1968 and Delphine and her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, are being sent to California to visit the mother that abandoned them soon after Fern was born. The girls have grand ideas about a mother who will hug them and take them to Disneyland.

Instead, their mother, Cecile, doesn't want anything to do with them, cares more about her poetry, and sends them for Chinese take-out every night. She's more concerned about her work and sends the girls to a Blank Panther-run summer camp during the day. The girls learn about revolution and family in a summer they will never forget.

It's hard to express how wonderful this book is and how much I adored it. I was pretty sure I would enjoy it, since I had been hearing a positive buzz. But I was completely unprepared for how much this book would pull me in and not let go. I couldn't put it down.

This is a quiet book. It's not an action filled book, and there wasn't any suspense that made me keep turning pages. It was just the beautifully written story of three sisters discovering their mother and themselves. There was just something about it that really resonated with me as a reader and I had to keep reading this one; I couldn't stop.

The writing is superb. This is a middle grade novel, but the author never writes down to her audience, and the characters are beautifully realistic and the dynamics between the sisters is spot-on. I loved Delphine - I think she's one of my new favorite characters in children's lit. In many ways, she is wise beyond her years, being the oldest sister and having to care for her younger sisters and mediating their quarrels. But she's also a child herself, and she lets herself finally be a child during this summer. The reader gets to know Delphine so much during the course of the story that the reader ends up growing with her - and Ms. Williams-Garcia pulls it off beautifully.

I really could keep gushing about this book, but instead you should get yourself a copy. Highly recommended for tweens and up.

Reviewed by: Sarah Bean the Green Bean Teen Queen

One Crazy Summer takes place in the summer of 1968, a year of tumultuous change in the United States. Eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, are on their first airplane ride to Oakland to visit their mother who abandoned them seven years ago. They are filled with both trepidation and excitement, as they leave the safety of their dad and grandma to reacquaint themselves with a mother who didn't want them.

Delphine tells their story and her voice rings loud and clear. She is the oldest and takes her responsibilities seriously. She is in charge of her sisters, and makes sure that they (and everyone else) understand that. The other sisters are beautifully drawn also. Vonetta is all "ham and show," always itching to be the center of attention. And Fern is the baby of the family, a tad needy and always clutching her baby doll.

When the girls meet their mother, Cecile, their worst fears are realized. She's late to pick them up at the airport, no hugs, clipped sentences and no home cooked meals. She's not exactly vying for mother of the year. She's a poet, and her kitchen is mysteriously off limits to the kids. She hands them money for take-out Chinese food, and forces them to attend a Black Panther-sponsored summer day camp.

As readers we learn so much about what was going on at the time, and we see it through the eyes of these three young sisters. We watch as they come to learn more about the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panthers, Huey Lewis and the true meaning of Revolution. When Delphine learns that they are supposed to participate in a rally, her fear is palpable. She's worried about the danger and tells one of the counselors that she doesn't want to participate, that she has to take care of her sisters. Sister Mukumbu tells her:

"We look out for each other. The rally is one way of looking out for all of our sisters. All of our brothers. Unity, Sister Delphine. We have to stand united."

Williams-Garcia does a beautiful job depicting the charged atmosphere that was such a part of the summer of 1968. And while there's danger in the air, there's also an incredible feeling of community amongst the people involved at the "summer camp." The rally is a pivotal point for each of the girls. For in their own ways, each one of them changes and matures during their month in Oakland. Their initial perceptions of many things are challenged, and by the end of the month they see things very differently.

One of the most satisfying aspects of the book for me is Delphine's journey. She discovers so much about herself, and about the mother that left her. For although Cecile never emerges as any sort of mother role model, you get a better sense of who she is, and why she did what she did.

One Crazy Summer is one of those rare middle-grade books that I didn't want to end. Williams-Garcia does a masterful job writing about a time period I think kids will find fascinating and educational. There's no better way to learn about about history than by viewing it through the eyes of a child. Delphine is the perfect narrator for one of the most fascinating, turbulent periods of American history. I highly recommend One Crazy Summer.

Eleven-year-old Delphine and her two sisters, Vonetta and Fern, live with their father and Big Ma, their guiding light grandmother, in Brooklyn. Their birth mother, Cecile, is in Oakland, California, doing her own thing during the summer of 1968. However, against her wishes, Delphine must spend her summer vacation with Cecile. She hopes she can put together some of the mysteries of her childhood and her mother's life, but is not excited about leaving home and having to continue to take care of her younger sisters in a strange place.

Cecile is a revolutionary, and having kids isn't really her main focus. She isn't a completely absent mom, but neither is she a particularly curious or protective one. She works with the Black Panthers, the revolutionary black movement that fostered controversy throughout the late '60s and early '70s. Like their Greenwich Village equivalents, these activists saw their activities as upstanding and necessary as a response to the craziness of the world at the time. It's a fascinating period to set a coming-of-age story against, and Rita Williams-Garcia does it without making the story too dark or frightening.

ONE CRAZY SUMMER captures both the unpredictable energy of the time and sets Delphine and her sisters right down in the midst of the some of the most politically charged and psychedelic experiences that closed out a decade of extreme change in the United States. When Cecile ends up getting arrested, the girls, especially Delphine, learn a valuable lesson about political intent and the democratic system. Delphine is a thoughtful, sweet 11-year-old, so the author has the opportunity to see this remarkable cultural period through new but attentive eyes, which makes the book a genuine page turner as well.

Family is such an average topic for books written for this audience, but Williams-Garcia finds new and interesting ways to discover the ins and outs of "family" in various incarnations. The Panthers are a family, too, and Cecile finds them easier to deal with than the family she created biologically. But as time goes on, her maternal instincts start to make an appearance, and she and her girls find common and uncontroversial ground they can tread together towards a new future where their own family shares Cecile's favors with her political family.

ONE CRAZY SUMMER is an excellent book --- brave, bold, funny, sad and endlessly interesting --- and will start many worthwhile discussions with your favorite young reader.

I really fell hard for this book-I reviewed it for TeensReadToo.com and it recieve a Gold Star award from me-I loved it that much. It's hard to express how wonderful this book is and how much I adored it. I was pretty sure I would enjoy since I had been hearing a positive buzz around this book. But I was completely unexpected for how much this book would pull me in and not let go-I couldn't put it down.

This is a quiet book. It's not an action filled book, and there wasn't any suspense that made me keep turning pages. It was just the beautifully written story of three sisters discovering their mother and themselves. There was just something about it that really resonated with me as a reader and I had to keep reading this one-I couldn't stop.

The writing is superb-this is a middle grade novel, but the author never writes down to her audience and the characters are beautifully realistic and the dynamics between the sisters is spot-on. I loved Delphine-I think she's one of my new favorite characters in children's lit. In many ways she is wise beyond her years, being the oldest sister and having to care for her younger sisters and mediating their quarrels. But she's also a child herself and she lets herself finally be a child during this summer. The reader gets to know Delphine so much during the course of the book, that the reader ends up growing with her and Ms. Williams-Garcia pulls it off beautifully.

I think what I loved most, that even though this is a middle-grade tween book, there are so many layers that readers of all ages could read it get something different. I was honestly amazed at how much I fell into this book and how much I loved it.

One Crazy Summer has five starred reviews and I think it's extremely deserving. I really could keep gushing about this book, but instead you should get yourself a copy. This one is on my Newbery Award shortlist (along with The Night Fairy) Highly recommended for tweens and up.

Award-winning young adult author Rita Williams-Garcia's first book aimed at tweens has been getting a lot of "buzz" in the children's book community, and I was eager to read it for myself. Set in Oakland in the turbulent summer of 1968, the story revolves around three sisters who are sent from New York to visit their mother, Cecile, for the summer.

Our narrator is the no-nonsense eldest sister, 11-year old Delphine, who is saddled with responsibility for watching out for her two younger siblings, Vonetta and Fern. Their dreams of a summer spent "riding wild waves on surfboards, picking oranges and apples off fruit trees, filling our autograph books with signatures from movie stars we'd see in soda shops, and...going to Disneyland" are soon shattered when they discover that their "Secret Agent Mother," a poet and a member of the Black Panthers, seems to not have a maternal bone in her body and wants nothing to do with them, not even remembering to give them dinner but finally sending them to the Chinese restaurant down the street for take-out. No one is allowed in her kitchen, where she writes poetry and keeps her printing press. She sends them off to an unusual day camp at The People's Center, run by the Black Panthers. At camp, Delphine has plenty of problems protecting her youngest sister Fern, who carries around a beloved white doll named Miss Patty Cake, from ridicule by the other children. In addition to free meals, the girls get "re-education" in revolutionary change, even though one of the girls says, "we didn't come for the revolution. We came for breakfast." But the girls learn that the Black Panthers are not just about "angry fist wavers with...their rifles ready for shooting." They are also about passing out toast and teaching in classrooms.

The author explores the different racial attitudes that existed in the 1960's with sensitivity but without shirking. While the girls wait for their mother to pick them up at the airport, for example, "A large white woman came and stood before us, clapping her hands like we were on display at the Bronx Zoo. 'Oh, my. What adorable dolls you are. My, my.'" The lady tries to give them nickels, which Delphine refuses. Another example is Delphine's explanation of colored counting, where "not only did we count how many colored people were on TV, we also counted the number of words the actors were given to say...and then there was a new show, Julia, coming out in September, starring Diahann Carroll. We agreed to shout out "Black Inifinity" when Julia came on because each episode would be all about her character."

Ms. Williams does a wonderful job capturing a unique voice for plain-spoken Delphine, who tells it like it is, narrating a story that takes place at an important time and place in our country's history. But the Black Panthers movement forms a backdrop for a novel that is essentially a family drama as three daughters try to work out their relationship with this not-very-maternal woman who is their mother. Her relationship with the girls is not sugar-coated, yet the novel is filled with humor and Ms. Williams' obvious affection for her characters.

don't think younger children learn about the Black Panthers till 7th or 8th grade and I like how One Crazy Summer is a book for younger kids about a part of African American (and ultimately, American) history that is not always talked about.

The characters are well written with interesting characteristics. Anyone who is the oldest of siblings will identify with Delphine. Delphine was my favorite (in large part due to her being the oldest as I am so I could identify with her), although at times I felt that she acted a bit too grown-up for her age (she's entering the sixth grade), but then again that is common with the oldest. Delphine is very candid and she was definitely the best choice to narrate the story. Vonetta is the second youngest and she's struggling between having loyalty to her sisters and being accepted by the children of Oakland who also attend the Black Panthers People's Center. The children especially like to make fun of Fern because she carries a white doll around with her all the time and they think she's ashamed to be black. This embarrasses Vonetta. Fern is a cute, precocious child (I think between the age of 5-7) who has one of the best scenes in the whole book at the end.

Learning about the Black Panthers through the girls' eyes is one of the best parts of the book. They see this strange African American men who wear all black, black berets and have Afros. They refer to each other as "brother" and "sister". Oftentimes we only see negative images of the Black Panthers and although they were violent, they also had a number of good programs. They offered free breakfast to kids, educated the and taught them to be Black and proud. I also loved reading about famous African Americans of the time, including Cassius Clay (aka Muhammad Ali, I never knew his non-Muslim name was Cassius Clay!).

The ending is satisfying and I would be interested in seeing a sequel when the girls are older. One Crazy Summer has a little bit of everything; history, action, romance and humor.

This book has had a lot of Newbery hype, so I was looking forward to it.

I liked the characters: 11-year-old Delphine who looks out for her younger sisters, is smart and sensible and mature beyond her years. Her little sisters Fern and Vonetta sort of lump together, since the story focuses on Delphine, but their relationship is genuine -- not picture perfect (and thus unrealistic), but admirable nonetheless.

The story is set in the late 60's in Oakland, California. The sisters are put on an airplane from Brooklyn to visit their poet mother, from whom they've been estranged (and who doesn't really want to see them now). When the girls get there, they don't get any mothering, although they do get to know her a little bit more, as they become involved in a Black Panther protest.

Seems a bit heavy for even an older middle grade reader, right? The tone is not heavy, but I'm just not sure it would be interesting. Heavy issues like disability, race, and political injustice as told through a child's eyes seem more matter-of-fact and less shocking, but while I think it's valuable for kids of this generation to read about the race struggles of our recent past, I'm not sure that the political Black Panther elements would transfer well.

I liked this book well enough, but I didn't love it.

I listened to the audio version of this book, which did not add or subtract from the telling in any way.

The bangles on the arm of Rita Williams-Garcia's character,Sister Mukumbu, triggered my memories of the late 1960's as I read this book. (As I recall, if women weren't wearing bangles, then they expressed themselves with tie-dye shirts and strongly scented oils - among other things). If any of this is familiar to you, then you'll really enjoy this book. If not, I invite you to take in the sights and sounds of people engaged in protest efforts during the late 1960's. Our attention is held by the actions of eleven-year old Delphine who bravely anchors herself to the adult role of supervising her younger sisters - Vonetta (who craves attention with such force that she'd be willing to go onstage during a riot) and Fern (who needs security with such passion that she hangs on to her Miss Patty Cake doll with a death grip). Flown to Oakland, CA (virtually against their will), they are destined to spend their summer with their seemingly indifferent mother, Cecile. Instead, the girls find themselves mostly in the care of the Black Panthers. They discover that the group is made up of brothers and sisters that hope to protect the poor by helping them with food, clothing, and medical needs - regardless of race. Written for those children who witnessed the turmoil of the 60's, and who were part of the necessary changes that subsequently grew from protest efforts, Rita Williams-Garcia does an impressive job of recreating the climate of the period - from a child's point of view. Richly steeped in the culture of the late 60's, this girl's story becomes a woman's story through a birth scene and through the changing view that the girls acquire of their mother (who turns out to be a poet). Although there are some moments when Delphine's maturity is almost too adult to believe, the characters are drawn with a bounty of realism and depth - and they are touching and memorable. The children in this book ultimately reveal that some of the protest violence of the 1960's wasn't about a bunch of kids acting out for the heck of it. It was, instead, about fighting to be included in the economy with sufficient depth to meet basic needs -which are universal to all human beings. A beautifully wrought book that certainly deserves its recent receipt of the Coretta Scott King Award!