One Crazy Summer

Garcia-Williams, R. (2010). One Crazy Summer. Toronto: Scholastic. 

This bookjacket is covered with awards: Scott O'Dell Award for historical fiction, Coretta Scott King Award for Non-violent change, Newbery Honor Book, Natonal Book Award (finalist). Seeing it on the Scholastic Book Fair shelves, I had to read it and was well rewarded.  This novel set in the late 1960's chronicles one month in the lives of Delphine, Vonetta and Fern as they travel from Brooklyn to Oakland California to meet the mother who left them when Fern was a baby.  Raised by their father and grandmother (who has not a single good word to say about their mother), these girls are independent and outspoken. Eleven year old Delphine has always looked out for her sisters and this summer she has to rise to the occasion once again as their mother, Cecile, refuses to look after them. Cecile sends the girls to the free breakfast and summer camp at the "People's Center" run by the Black Panthers where they get an education in social change, human nature, and what it's like to be in the stories they see on the news. Garcia-Williams cleverly weaves social issues of 1960's America with the timeless issues of childhood. While the beginning of the book seems to have a lot of hisorical references which might be confusing for younger readers, the endearing characters, effective use of vernacular (not too much, not too little, but just right) and a last minute insight into Cecile's character make the novel compelling and emotional. 

Intermediate