One Crazy Summer

by Rita Williams-Garcia
Over winter break I read this book wondering if I should read it with my students. It was highly recommended to me by my school librarian. "One Crazy Summer" is a historical fiction novel that takes place in 1969 in Oakland, CA. The narrator is Delphine, the oldest sister. She and her two younger sisters travel to California to live with their mother for the summer. Delphine faces a lot of internal conflict as she deals with putting the pieces together with why her mother left them. Even though she is eleven, she asks like she is 30, having to take on the role of mother for ther two sisters. Their mother, Cecile takes the children in but does not want anything to do with the girls. The girls call their mom "crazy". They discover that their mom works for the Black Panther Party. Mom sends the girls to attend the breakfast program and summer camp that is not their traditional form of education. I loved this book because the characters focus on the roles of children and women and their role in the Black Panther Party. Rita Williams-Garcia has won a number of awards for this book. It is the "new hot shit" on my list.

I do plan to read this book with my class. I like it because the book really focuses on empowerment and looks at how one organization (though highly demonized in our history textbooks) took care of their own community. I will use the topic of controversial Black Panthers to my advantage as an opportunity for students to think critically. I will use primary and secondary sources about the Black Panthers to compare, contrast, analyze and evaluate sources for bias/objectiveness; facts/opinions. Though the reading level is lower, supplementing non-fiction materials to help us better understand the historical period will provide an enriching experience for my students.

Grade Level: 4.6
Lexile: 750