One Crazy Summer

Williams-Garcia, R. (2010). One Crazy Summer. New York: Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins.

 Award: Coretta Scott King and Newbery

 

Exposition: Three sisters–Delphine (11), Violetta (9), and Fern (7)–fly from Brooklyn, where they live with their father and grandmother, to spend 28 days in Oakland with their mother Cecile who they haven’t seen since Fern was an infant.

Conflict: There isn’t so much a conflict in this story as it is a growing of age story. The three girls have a mother who doesn’t know how to be a parent. They learn during the time that they spend with her to accept her for who she is. The setting is in California during the 1960s. Cecile is involved with the Black Panther movement.

Rising Action: The three girls learn to fend for themselves as their mother doesn’t want them around during the day and doesn’t cook for them at night. They go to a community hall and attend youth activities where they learn about the Black Panther movement. Something they were unfamiliar with in Brooklyn. At night they have Chinese take out as their mother doesn’t want them in her kitchen messing it up.

Climax: Cecile is arrested and put in jail, the girls are left on their own for a while. After which Delphine learns a little more about her mother.

Falling Action: The girls recite poetry at a community rally and Cecile congratulates them on doing so.

Resolution: When boarding the plane to go home the girls realize that they won’t get a warm goodbye and turn to leave. But at the last moment, they look back and Cecile is standing there watching them instead of having already left. They leave the line to give her a hug goodbye.

Literary qualities: This book is chock full of characterization. All three sisters are fleshed out to be characters that you can see and understand. Style and tone are also strong in this book as it is told through the voice of Delphine which makes her an even strong character. The historical facts woven in this book are limited, but enough to give information for those that want to do further research to find out more about the Black Panther movement and that time period.