One+Crazy+Summer

**Shelby Ford** __**Biographical Data:**__ From []
 * **Reading level:** Ages 9 and up
 * **Paperback:** 240 pages
 * **Publisher:** Amistad; Reprint edition (December 27, 2011)
 * **Language:** English
 * **ISBN-13:** 978-0060760908

__**Summary:**__ One Crazy Summer tells the story of three African-American sisters from Brooklyn: Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern to visit their mother Cecile in Oakland, California in 1968 who left them when Fern was a baby. Big Ma, their fraternal grandmother says that Cecile left because their father Louis wouldn't let her name Fern.Their father feels it is important for the girls to know their mother. Delphine who is the oldest (eleven going on twelve) takes care of her two younger siblings on their trip to Oakland. Once in Oakland, Cecile wants nothing to do with the girls and doesn't care if they know it. She feeds them Chinese take-out every night and sends them to the Center everyday for free breakfast and a camp program everyday until it starts to get dark out. She will not even let them inside her kitchen.Delphine knows not to expect anything from Cecile but her younger sisters still think that Cecile will change her mind and want to be with her daughters. Cecile doesn't call Fern by her name but calls her Little Girl. The Center is run by the Black Panthers where everyone calls each other brother and sister. Some Black Panthers want Cecile's help because she has a printing press in her kitchen which she uses to write her poems. They call her Sister Nzila.Delphine doesn't understand why Cecile felt the need to change her names since she feels names are important. At the center the girls meet Sister Pat and Sister Mukumbu who direct the children's program. Crazy Kelvin is a young kid who calls the police racist pigs. There are three other sisters who are similar in ages to Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern. Vonetta makes friends with the middle sister Janice and Delphine becomes friendly with the old sister Eunice.There is also a boy named Hirohito Woods who is half black and half Japanese. Later Delphine finds out that Hirohito's father was a Blank Panther and was taken from their home by police There is something about him that interests Delphine. Delphine soon learns that a young Black Panther, Bobby Hutton was shot and killed by police officers when he tried to surrender in a house hold-up. She starts to fear for her and her sister's safety and refuses to go back to the Center when they are told they will take part in a rally to free Black Panther founder Huey Newton from prison. There will also be a talent portion on the show for the children in the program to present any special talents. Vonetta and Fern will do anything to get noticed. However Cecile makes them go back. One day towards the end of the month, Delphine decides to take a day trip to San Francisco with her sisters. When they get back the see that the police are at Cecile's house arresting Cecile and two Black Panthers. Cecile tells the cops that she does not have any children and Delphine pretends they live a blue house down the street. When the cops leave, the girls go inside to see Cecile's kitchen trashed with papers, ink, letter blocks, and the printing press on the floor. The next day they work to clean everything up when Hirohito comes to their house with his mother to tell the girls that they can stay with them until their mother comes home. Throughout their stay with Hirohito, there is a subtle liking going on between Delphine and Hirohito even though they pretend to hate each other. A week later is the rally and the girls go to the rally and recite a poem that they found Cecile wrote when they were cleaning up her kitchen. Afterwards, Fern takes the mic and tells a shares a story how on the way to San Francisco, Fern saw from the bus cops patting Crazy Kelvin on the back like he was good puppy. This got Kelvin in trouble with the Black Panthers for being a traitor. After the talent portion of the rally the girls spot Cecile in crowd and go over to her since she just got out of jail. She takes the girls home and gives Vonetta and Fern actual compliments for their performance. Later, Cecile confronts Delphine about not calling their father when she was in jail. Delphine thought Cecile would be home soon and that she didn't want Big Ma to spend every day complaining about Cecile when they got home. She said she does everything because she doesn't just ups and leaves. Cecile tells Delphine the story of how she lost her mother at 11, went to live with an aunt, then got kicked out where she lived on the streets and on park benches. She said that their father found her one day and brought her back to his place. She said that when Fern was coming, she was all alone on the kitchen floor with four/five year old Delphine trying to comfort her. Then she left. Delphine asked if it was true that she left because she couldn't name Fern. Cecile said she couldn't explain her reasons because Delphine was still too young to understand. Then Cecile began calling Fern the name Afua in her conversation with Delphine. Delphine realizes that her mother wanted to name Fern Afua. The next day the girls are heading back to Brooklyn. In the morning Cecile yells at the girls to get ready and actually calls Fern by her name. Fern is excited. Right before boarding the plane, Fern runs back to Cecile to give her a hug and then Vonetta and Delphine come too to give their mother a hug.

__**Author Biography:**__

Rita Williams Garcia was born in Queens, NY in 1957. She began sending in short stories to magazines at age 12 yet was rejected. Her family moved a lot to Jamaica, California, and Georgia. She entertained herself by writing stories. At age 14 she sold her first story to Highlights Magazine. In college she went to Hofstra where she sold another story to Essence magazine. Her first book Blue Lights was published in the late 80's and is now a full time writer. Her works include Jumped, No Laughter Here, Every Time A Rainbow Dies, and more. Right now Rita lives in Jamaica, New York, and is a faculty member at the Vermont College Fine Arts in the Writing for Children and Young Adults Program. []

__**Book Review:**__ I thoroughly enjoyed reading One Crazy Summer. It was a great story of a historical time period in the United States and how it affected the children of that time. The characters were one of a kind and had something special about each and every one of them.Even the supporting characters added uniqueness to the story. This was a fantastic story to teach young children about what life was like in the late 1960's and who the Black Panthers were. This book can be used in the classroom when learning about the Civil Rights movement and how children were involved but it can also be used teach students character development specifically with Delphine and Cecile. It was such an original book on the topic of the Black Panthers for children and can certainly be incorporated into the curriculum to teach acceptance, growing up, and personal identity.

__**Literary Element: Character Development:**__ One Crazy Summer shows how Delphine and Cecile develop throughout the story. Delphine knows not to expect anything special from Cecile when the girls first arrive in Oakland. She knows her mother wants nothing to do with them yet she has this yearning to know who Cecile really is. She does not want to leave Oakland without knowing that. She is troubled how Cecile felt the need to change her name to Nzila even if she doesn't admit it. Delphine has a struggle with names. "A name is important. It isn't something you drop in the litter basket or on the ground. Your name is how people know you. The very mention of your name makes a picture spring to mind, whether it's a picture of clashing fists or a mighty mountain that can't be knocked down. Your name is who you are and how you're known even when you do something great or something dumb" (page 80).This plays an important role for Delphine because at the end of the book, she finds out that Cecile wanted Fern's name to be Afua. Delphine learns something about Cecile through their shared understanding of what a name really means. Through this shared understanding Delphine learns who Cecile is by the end of the story. Cecile's character development is different as in the beginning she wants nothing to do with her daughters but at the end she learns that each girl is special and individual even if she fails to show it. When Cecile shared her story of her past and when she left, Delphine asks, "' Is it true what Big Ma says? That you left because you couldn't name Fern?' I took her silence for a yes." (page 209). Cecile tries to make a relationship with her oldest daughter by sharing her secrets yet she can't fully commit and tell Delphine the truth about why she left. That is more than what Delphine expected when she first came to Oakland. Also, when the girls were getting ready to board their plane back to Brooklyn, Cecile didn't stop Fern, then Vonetta and Delphine from hugging her. Cecile has grown from being a distant parent to a distant parent taking baby steps towards creating a relationship with her children.