A review by efinestead
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

4.0

Summer, 1968. Three young girls fly across the country to Oakland, California to spend the summer with their absent mother. Fern, the baby of the group, is faithfully attached to her doll Miss Pattycake while Vonetta, the middle daughter, loves being at the center of attention and will do almost anything to have the spotlight shine on her. The eldest, 11 year old Delphine, spends most of her time trying to keep everything from falling apart. When they meet their mom Cecile, who goes by Nzila now, their expectations for the summer are shattered. Disneyland and beach trips go out the window. She is not what they expect in a mother - tall, dressed in men’s clothes, unable to cook dinner - and they are not what she expected either. The three girls spend their summer in a Black Panther summer camp, learning the motivation and strength behind the movement. As they attempt to find their place in Oakland, they are faced with their mother’s obsession with her poetry, conflict between the police and the Black Panthers, and their own awareness of themselves as Black. Throughout the novel, Delphine is torn between following the advice of her grandmother and her father, to assimilate into white American culture, and the new examples shown to her by her mother, in which carving out your own space is desireable. Winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, the Scott O’Dell Award, and a Newbery Honor book, One Crazy Summer will capture the hearts and minds of young readers.