One Crazy Summer, Rita WilliamsGarcia
One Crazy Summer, Rita WilliamsGarcia
24 Rating(s)
List: $15.99 | Sale: $11.20
Club: $7.99

One Crazy Summer

Author: Rita Williams-Garcia

Narrator: Sisi Aisha Johnson

Unabridged: 5 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 12/10/2010


Synopsis

ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults
ALA Notable Children’s Book
Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction
Newbery Honor Book
Coretta Scott King Award (Author)

In this Newbery Honor novel, New York Times bestselling author Rita WilliamsGarcia tells the story of three sisters who travel to Oakland, California, in 1968 to meet the mother who abandoned them. A strong option for summer reading—take this book along on a family road trip or enjoy it at home.

This moving, funny novel won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction and the Coretta Scott King Award and was a National Book Award Finalist. Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern's story continues in P.S. Be Eleven and Gone Crazy in Alabama.

Readers who enjoy Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham and Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming will find much to love in One Crazy Summer. Rita Williams-Garcia's books about Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern can also be read alongside nonfiction explorations of American history such as Jason Reynolds's and Ibram X. Kendi's books.

In One Crazy Summer, eleven-year-old Delphine is like a mother to her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern. She's had to be, ever since their mother, Cecile, left them seven years ago for a radical new life in California. But when thesisters arrive from Brooklyn to spend the summer with their mother, Cecile is nothing like they imagined.

While the girls hope to go to Disneyland and meet Tinker Bell, their mother sends them to a day camp run by the Black Panthers. Unexpectedly, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern learn much about their family, their country, and themselves during one truly crazy summer.

About Rita Williams-Garcia

Rita Williams-Garcia's Newbery Honor Book, One Crazy Summer, was a winner of the Coretta Scott King Author Award, a National Book Award finalist, the recipient of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, and a New York Times bestseller. The two sequels, P.S. Be Eleven and Gone Crazy in Alabama, were both Coretta Scott King Author Award winners and ALA Notable Children’s Books. Her novel Clayton Byrd Goes Underground was a National Book Award finalist and winner of the NAACP Image Award for Youth/Teen Literature. Rita is also the author of five other distinguished novels for young adults: Jumped, a National Book Award finalist; No Laughter Here, Every Time a Rainbow Dies (a Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book), Fast Talk on a Slow Track (all ALA Best Books for Young Adults); and Blue Tights. Rita Williams-Garcia lives in Jamaica, New York, with her husband and has two adult daughters. You can visit her online at ritawg.com.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Wilhelmina on January 14, 2011

I do not ordinarily read middle-grade books unless I am sharing them with my grandson, but I was drawn to this beautiful book initially because of its subject matter - children in Oakland during the early days of the Black Panther Party. But this book is so much more than its historical setting. I f......more

Goodreads review by Betsy on February 01, 2010

When I heard that teen author Rita Williams-Garcia had written a middle grade novel for kids I wasn't moved one way or another. I don't read teen books. Couldn't say I knew much of the woman's work. When I heard that her book was about the Black Panthers, however, my interest was piqued. Black Panth......more

Goodreads review by Rincey on August 04, 2016

Well, that gave me a whole lotta feels.......more

Goodreads review by Calista on November 13, 2020

I started this story in June. I spent April, May and the beginning of June reading about 20-25 books a month or so and naturally, I burned myself out. All this to say, the reason I stopped reading this marvelous book has nothing to do with the book. It was just where I was at. This little gem is ama......more

Goodreads review by Christy on June 14, 2021

3.5 stars
 One Crazy Summer was a middle grade that took place in the 1960’s. This story follows three sisters who travel cross country to spend a month of the summer with the mother who abandoned them. What I loved: the sisterhood between the three girls, some of the side characters, I learned a lot......more