One Crazy Summer Book Review by Rita Williams-Garcia

Written by Rita Williams-Garcia

Published by Quill Tree Books in 2011

ISBN:978-0060760908

Plot Summary: Delphine and her younger sisters are going to visit their mother Cecile in California for the summer as she abandoned them several years ago. When they arrive, they find out she lives in a normal house even though they believed she was homeless. Their mother tells them to order takeout and then tells them to stay out of the kitchen. 3 Black Panthers arrive and ask for their mother's help with doing printing. Her mom tells the Black Panthers that they need to take her 3 daughters so she can work so the girls end up at a Black Panther's facility that is like a daycare. They learn about what is means to be a Panther as well as learning what their culture should and shouldn't do. Delphine starts to get along with her mother and Delphine decides to take her sisters out to see the sights around San Francisco. When they get back, the find out their mother has been arrested. At a rally, the girls perform a poem written by their mom only to find out that she had been released. When the time comes to go back home, Cecile and Delphine have a conversation about staying young as long as possible before they hug and go back home. 

Critical Analysis (Including Cultural Markers): The characters in this story really bring out many thought and feelings about this time period in American history and about what it really means to be African American and fighting for the rights that you deserve. Delphine goes from wanting to keep her culture a secret, to understanding and fighting for the rights as an activist. Cecile is very overtly where Delphine gets that fighting spirit from as she works tirelessly for the effort so much so as to even abandon her own children.  The setting of Oakland is a huge part of the narrative of the story as it contributes to the Black Panther movement and causes a lot of the social strife that is evident. The cultural aspect was well thought out as during that time African Americans frequently changed names to try to go back to their roots according to my research after googling why Cecile used a different pen name of Nzila. 

Review: Kirkus Review 

A flight from New York to Oakland, Calif., to spend the summer of 1968 with the mother who abandoned Delphine and her two sisters was the easy part. Once there, the negative things their grandmother had said about their mother, Cecile, seem true: She is uninterested in her daughters and secretive about her work and the mysterious men in black berets who visit. The sisters are sent off to a Black Panther day camp, where Delphine finds herself skeptical of the worldview of the militants while making the best of their situation. Delphine is the pitch-perfect older sister, wise beyond her years, an expert at handling her siblings: “Just like I know how to lift my sisters up, I also knew how to needle them just right.” Each girl has a distinct response to her motherless state, and Williams-Garcia provides details that make each characterization crystal clear. The depiction of the time is well done, and while the girls are caught up in the difficulties of adults, their resilience is celebrated and energetically told with writing that snaps off the page. (Historical fiction. 9-12)

Connection: Students can learn more and research the Black Panther Movement and that time period in our country's history. 

More Books by Rita Williams-Garcia

P.S. Be Eleven ISBN 978-0061938641

Gone Crazy in Alabama ISBN 978-0062215895

Jumped ISBN 978-0060760939

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Free Lunch Book Review by Rex Ogle

Image
Written By Rex Ogle Published by Norton Young Readers in 2019 ISBN: 978-1324003601 Plot Summary: This is a memoir of Rex Ogle when he was in 6th grade. He was enrolled in the free lunch program at school as he was living in poverty at the time. The story begins with his mom Luciana in the grocery store as they are shopping for food but they only have so many dollars in food stamps that they can use. Rex remembers how angry he is that he never gets to choose food that he likes and both he and his mom are embarrassed as they didn't have enough money for the food that they chose so they only walk out with one bag of groceries even though they had chosen much more than that. Rex is anxious about going to school as he doesn't want the other kids to know that he was on the free lunch program and when he questions his mom she beats him and gives him a black eye which he has to explain away at the school. Rex has to announce that he has free lunch in the line which embarasses him even
Read more

Scythe by Neal Shusterman Book Review

Image
  Written By: Neal Shusterman Published By: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers in 2017 ISBN: 978-1442472433 Plot Summary: The year is 2042 and artificial intelligence has become alive and thinks for itself and has created a network called the Thunderhead. As it knows all, it has figured out how to keep humans alive indefinitely. The problems of how to feed and shelter everyone is still an issue so a job is created called being a Scythe. They are required to kill a certain number of people to balance the scales. Two teenagers are training to be a Scythe and their names are Citra and Rowan. They are supposed to both be trained and then one is chosen while the other goes back to their normal life. Other Scythes decide though that whoever wins has to kill the other as their first kill. Their trainer pretends to kill himself so they are sent to train under other scythes. Citra finds out that their original trainer is still alive and creates a plan to make everything work out for h
Read more

The Surrender Tree by Margarita Engle Book Rev

Image
   Written by Margarita Engle  Published by Square Fish in 2010  ISBN: 978-0312608712 Plot Summary: The book is based on Rosario Castellanos Castellanos who is a famous person in Cuban American history. She was a freed slave who works as a nurse for the rebels who are fighting against the Spanish in the mid to late 1800's in Cuba. The poems are free verse and are written from the perspective of 4 different people: Rosa, Jose her husband, a slave hunter named Lieutenant Death in the story, and a girl named Sylvia. The novel is written in 5 different parts that cover Rosa's story from childhood to adulthood.  The first part is titled "The Names of the Flowers" and is talks about how Rosa grows up in the field amd learns about the healing properties of different plants and herbs from the women. Rosa helps to heal runaway slaves who have been beaten after running away and this is where she meets Teniente Muerte otherwise known as Lieutenant Death. The Lieutenant doesn'
Read more