Author: Rita Williams-Garcia
Title: One Crazy Summer
Genre: Children's Chapter Book
Subgenre: Ages 9+
Theme: Children reclaiming a reluctant parent's love.
Primary and Secondary characters: Delphine, Cecile, Vonetta, Fern
Awards: Coretta Scott King
Awards: Coretta Scott King
Publishing company: Amistad
Brief summary & how to use with students: Delphine and her two sister, Vonetta and Fern, haven't seen their mother since she abandoned them 7 years ago but their father decides now is the time for them to reunite. They don't know what to expect but they have to fly to California and survive one whole month with her. 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.
This is an excellent book for students 9 and up. Not only does it tell the story of children trying to reclaim their reluctant parent's love, it's also set in a pivotal time in history and brings light to the subtle ways political movements affect personal lives.
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