Last time I had a book in hand on the train to ALA, it was Grace Lin's
Where The Mountain Meets the Moon. This time I took along
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, and was pleased as punch when I closed the book upon arriving at Union Station.
Delphine is trying to keep her younger sisters
Vonetta and Fern calm as they jet through turbulence on the way to go meet their mother Cecile in California. Delphine has an inkling of the turbulence she and her sisters may be in for once they get to Oakland. She has vague memories of being with Cecile in their kitchen in Brooklyn while she wrote on the walls and muttered to herself. She also knows that Cecile left soon after Fern was born. After that, Big Ma moved from down South to Brooklyn and took up right where their mom left off.
Now the girls are about to spend their summer with Cecile, just because Daddy says it's time. Cecile didn't send for them, or ask about them, but they are coming anyway. When they finally land, the stewardess hands them off to Cecile -- a strange woman in a pair of man's pants, gigantic sunglasses and a scarf. Not one for affection, she tells them to follow her and strides off. After a commute that involves a particular taxi and a bus ride, the girls enter into Cecile's house. It's more than the girls thought it would be based on all of the talking that Big Ma had been doing.
But it's not quite homey. The girls are banished from the kitchen, and are told to head to the back bedroom that they would all be sharing. There's no food in the house, no television, and it becomes obvious quite quickly, that the girls won't be depending on Cecile for any entertainment this summer!
The morning after they arrive, Cecile directs Delphine and her sisters to the People's Center to get some breakfast. She tells them that it will be easy to find. After all it's "
black folks in black clothes rapping revolution and a line of hungry black kids." (p. 57)
This sets the stage for the slow reveal. The story is one of family, of politics, of race and friendship. Williams-Garcia has seemingly effortlessly woven in the feel of the time period (1968), and allowed a window into Oakland and the reality of the Black Panther movement; whether it be senseless arrests or educating children. There are enough jumping off points to bring on a study of the time period, but the story never veers into message territory. Delphine is the epitome of the 11 year old. She's a responsible first born who is trying to figure her mother out, while finding her own self at the same time.
I was amazed upon finding the reality of Cecile's existence. All of the characters in this book are multifaceted, and remind the reader to look a little deeper.
A must read.
If you haven't heard of
One Crazy Summer, you will. Rita Williams-Garcia's latest middle grade fiction is getting a lot of buzz, and justifiably so.
One Crazy Summer is set in a poor neighborhood of Oakland, California, 1968. Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern (three African-American girls, aged 11, 9 and 7) travel on their own from Brooklyn to Oakland. Their father, against the judgment of the girls' grandmother and caretaker, Big Mama, has decided that it's time for the girls to meet Cecile, the mother that deserted them. With visions of Disneyland, movie stars, and Tinkerbell dancing in their heads, they set off on the plane determined not to make, as Big Mama says, "Negro spectacles" of themselves. This is advice that Delphine, the oldest, has heard often. She is smart and savvy with a good head on her shoulders, and she knows how to keep her sisters in line. Not much can throw her for a loop, but then, she hasn't met crazy Cecile yet. Cecile, or Nzila, as she is known among the Black Panthers, is consumed by her passion - poetry. She writes powerful and moving poems for "the people" - important work, and she is not about to be disturbed by three young girls and their constant needs for food and attention. She operates a one-woman printing press in her kitchen - no children allowed. Instead of Disneyland and the beach, she shoos the girls off daily to the local center run by the Black Panthers. There, in the midst of an impoverished, minority neighborhood, the girls receive free breakfast, kind words, and an education the likes of which they would never have gotten in Brooklyn. Slowly, they begin to understand the plight of "the people" - the Blacks, the poor, the immigrants, even Cecile.
Although this book has several great themes (Civil Rights, sisterhood, community) and well-rounded strong-willed characters, you can read about them in any number of reviews. As for me, with my teenage daughter preparing to take a trip to Europe next month with the Girl Scouts, one thing from One Crazy Summer jumped
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
Eleven-year-old Delphine has looked after her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, ever since her mother left them soon after Fern’s birth seven years ago. Now she and her sisters have traveled across the United States from Brooklyn to Oakland, California to see the mother they barely remember. Once there, they discover a distant woman who won’t let them into her kitchen, feeds them only takeout, and insists that they are gone outside all day. She sends the girls to a summer camp run by the Black Panthers where they are educated about revolution and black rights. Set during in 1968, the girls see first hand the changing times. Written with a depth of character, pitch-perfect dialogue, and a great deal of warmth, this book is an amazing work of children’s fiction.
Williams-Garcia has outdone herself with this novel. Her portrayal of the girls, their mother and the Black Panthers is done even handedly and with appreciation for what was being done. Cecile, the mother, is a complicated figure with a complex history and a fractured relationship with her children. Williams-Garcia’s depiction of her is captivating in both good and bad ways. This book reads as though it is about real people, with real personalities living during real times. The characters grow convincingly throughout the story, with no one leaving behind their personality for sudden, simple change. It is all deeper and more honest than that.
Highly recommended, I would expect this book to garner Newbery attention as well as Coretta Scott King Award interest. This would work well in a classroom, since it is filled with moments worth discussing. It would also make a fantastic summer read. Appropriate for ages 9-13.
Reviewed from library copy.
Also reviewed by The Goddess of YA Literature, Bib-Laura-graphy, A Patchwork of Books, Muddy Puddle Musings, Fuse #8, A Chair, A Fireplace & a Tea Cozy, and Young Books.
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By:
Lizzy Burns,
on 2/23/2010
Blog:
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One Crazy Summer
by Rita Williams-Garcia. Amistad, an imprint of Harper Collins. 2010. Reviewed from ARC from publisher.
The Plot: 1968. Delphine Gaither, 11, is the oldest sister, the responsible one, who is in charge of Vonetta (age 9) and Fern (age 7) as they travel from Brooklyn to Oakland, CA to visit Cecile, the mother who left them shortly after Fern's birth.
In One Crazy Summer, the three girls learn not just about their mother and about themselves, but also about the larger world. The world of 1968 is one where grown ups argue with children about whether they use the word black or colored; a seven year old is taken to task in public for having a white doll; and poetry is not just words on a page.
The Good: I love the Gaither sisters! I love how they stick up for each other in public, yet get mad at each other in private. I love how they have this thing where they don't just finish each others sentences -- when taking on someone, they converse as if one, a solid family unit.
Williams-Garcia brings 1968 alive. Take this passage about the girls and how they watch TV, where they look "to find colored people on television. Each week, Jet magazine pointed out all the shows with colored people. My sisters and I became expert colored counters. We had it down to a science. Not only did we count how many colored people were on TV, we also counted the number of words the actors were given to say. For instance, it was easy to count the number of words the Negro engineer on Mission Impossible spoke as well as the black POW on Hogan's Heroes."
The words are those used at the time (colored, black, Negro); the story involves something (television) that today's kid can relate to; and it shows how few people of color were on TV and how they were utilized in those programs. All entertaining; yet also informational. Most importantly, it conveys something about 1968 and about these three girls. Cecile may be the parent who is now a poet, who works with the Black Panthers. Grandmother "Big Ma" and their father have raised them to think how "they" will look at you, to "make sure they don't misbehave or be an embarrassment to the Negro race." Big Ma and Papa have also taught them pride and taught them to judge the world they are in.
Because the girls are visiting an unknown mother, they serve as "outsiders" to the world they encounter, where the Black Panthers at the People's Center provide free breakfast and summer camp. Oh, they have some knowledge, of course, just not the day-to-day life experience. So, too, the reader is introduced to the Black Panthers.
Cecile. Cecile is not a dream mother out of a book. There is the whole abandoning her daughters; even when the girls arrive for a month's stay, Cecile continues to act as if she doesn't want them around and doesn't care about them. Let me add, how much I love their father who took the chance and risk of sending these girls to be with the woman who left him. I love nuanced portrayals of adults, especially those who do
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I loved this one, too. I just feel like my elementary students will have a hard time getting into it or understanding the events of that time period.
This was one of my favorite books of 2010, the other being Countdown. I reviewed One Crazy Summer for my blog on New Year's Eve. Not a bad way to ring in a new year.