Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

2011 Newbery Honor Book

National Book Award Finalist

Ratings Explanation

Language: Children call Fern a “white baby lover” because she carries her baby doll around. Delphine calls Hirohito “China boy”. Some other name calling.

Violence:  Bobby Hutton’s death is recounted in which there is a shoot-out between the Black Panthers and the police. When young Bobby comes out to surrender, he is shot.

Adult Themes: The mother of three young girls abandons them to pursue her own life as a poet.  Their mother is arrested for associating with the Black Panthers. Racial issues.

Synopsis

The summer of 1968 is a crazy one for three black sisters who fly cross-country to Oakland, California to visit the mother who abandoned them seven years earlier. Vonetta and Fern were too young when she left to even remember Cecile, their mother, but 11-year-old Delphine has a few fractured memories of her. Memories of Cecile writing poems on cereal boxes and walls, listening to smoky jazz music and the memory of her leaving when Fern still needed her milk.

As they anticipate meeting the mother none of them know, they envision all that California and their mother will offer them:  Disneyland, movie stars, and loving embraces. But the reality is that instead of Disneyland, they spend their time at the Community Center, instead of movie stars, they learn about jailed Black Panther founder Huey Newton and the martyr Bobby Hutton, and instead of loving embraces, they meet a disinterested mother who resents their presence and advises them to stay out all day so they don’t disturb her work.

As the summer progresses, the girls learn a few things about their distant, crazy mother and in the process, each one learns something about herself as well.

One Crazy Summer is set in one of the most volatile periods in recent U.S. history and emphasizes the effects of the period on the children who experienced it.

I really enjoyed this book and think it is a great jumping off point for a discussion about civil rights in the United States.

I especially like Delphine’s character. She is responsible and grown up for an 11-year-old because she has been in charge of her sisters all of her life. She is used to doing hard things and knows the things that a mother knows, like Vonetta and Fern can be in the bathtub together for exactly 15 minutes before they start splashing and fighting. She knows that she can stay in the tub for 12 minutes before they start fighting. If she soaks for an extra 3 minutes, she’ll be sorry because they will be at each others throats and she’ll have to settle them down. When their “vacation” isn’t going the way they had hoped, she takes matters into her own hands and plans a wonderful, memorable excursion for the three of them. She is strong and smart, but everyone expects too much of  11-year-old Delphine.

Both Booklist and School Library Journal recommend this book for 4-7 graders. I think that the content is appropriate for this age range, but younger readers may need some background information to understand the heated issues of the late 1960s.