One Crazy Summer - Rita Williams-Garcia

One Crazy Summer - Rita Williams-Garcia

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Williams-Garcia, R. 2010. ONE CRAZY SUMMER. New York: Amistad. ISBN 9780060760885.

PLOT SUMMARY

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.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

 One Crazy Summer is a powerful story; round, believable characters we come to love; insight into a period of history from a perspective we probably haven’t heard before; expert and beautiful use of language; consistent and distinct ways of talking that help us understand each character as an individual; and a story that leaves you warmed and smiling, with deepened understanding and with things to think about. Rita Williams-Garcia understands what it takes to capture an audience when it comes to characterization.This is a book that will stick with you. Each character in this text is uniquely written, they holds up in dialogue and are completely immersed in the story that Rita Williams-Garcia has put them in. It is a beautiful thing and translates into fluid and poetic narrative. This historical fiction text has a great story and history lesson rolled into one. It portrays a time in history that young readers of today may not be able to understand without a text such as this. It's one of those reads that you just don't want to put down. You want to continue to know what is going to happen to Delphine. This book is also offered as an audio book for those who like to read on the go (as you're driving!).

REVIEW EXCERPTS


School Library Journal
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.—Teri Markson, Los Angeles Public Library




Booklist
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. Grades 4-7. --Gillian Engberg


 Kirkus Reviews
“Delphine is the pitch-perfect older sister, wise beyond her years, an expert at handling her siblings...while the girls are caught up in the difficulties of adults, their resilience is celebrated and energetically told with writing that snaps off the page”




CONNECTIONS


Language Arts, collaborate with the Social Studies/History.  This book is a fabulous tie-in for the Civil Rights Movement in American History.


1. Create timelines that compare actual Black Panther events with those described in One Crazy Summer.  Research the time when the Black Panthers started the children's programs in Oakland. The timelines could include important historical events that happened from 1968 such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s death to the end of that movement.
2. Research the key players of the Black Panthers, such as Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and Bobby Hutton.  Include other historical figures from the time period.
3. Compare and contrast the positive and negative decisions made by the Panthers.  Discuss what they did that worked and what they could have done better.
4. Compare the beliefs of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and The Black Panthers.  How are they alike? Dislike?
5. Review poetry, music, and movies from the 1960's.  Have students write their own poetry and lyrics about things they believe strongly.  
6. Encourage the students to write a play or make a video that demonstrates the conflicts experienced by Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern within the larger conflicts of the United States during that time.