One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
Reviewed by KeriRatings
Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content
LANGUAGE
VIOLENCE
ADULT THEMES
Newbery Honor Book
Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction
National Book Award Finalist
Winner of the Coretta Scott King Award
Ratings Explanation
Language: Inferences to racial prejudice.
Violence: Arrests and news stories of police brutality.
Adult Themes: A mother abandons her children. They think that it is because she wasn’t allowed to pick the new baby’s name. Grandmother tells the girls how worthless their mother is. Racial prejudice, man’s inhumanity to man.
Synopsis
It was the year 1968, a tumultuous time in our country’s recent history. Three black sisters leave their home in Brooklyn and set out for Oakland California; their father felt it was time for them to meet their mother who abandoned them years ago. In their hearts, the girls hope they find the mother of their dreams, one who greets them with hugs, kisses and apologies. Instead, they find a women, consumed with her work as a poet and uninterested in her children. She shoos them off each day so that she can work on her writing. The sisters find the local community center run by the Black Panthers. Here they are fed breakfast and lunch and join the youth group activities. The influence of the political unrest in the black community, filters into the girl’s lives as they learn about Black Power and see first hand the hardships that racism inflicts upon individuals and families. They quickly realize that this is not the Disney vacation that they had hoped for and instead try to figure out how to connect with their mother and also have a summer vacation worth writing about when they get back to school.
I really enjoyed this book. It is told through the eyes of the oldest sister, Delphine, a strong willed and regimented girl who tries to keep her sisters in line while striving to make some connection with her mother. The girls are memorable characters that carry a powerful story. There is something so poignant about lessons learned through a child’s perspective. It seems to help us adults see the world as it really is.