One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, 2010

I've arisen from my blogging slumber (in other words, bought a laptop) and am back with many a thing to tell you. But before I get to any of those things, let's just talk about a book for old time's sake.

Here in Indiana we have this little celebration called the Young Hoosier Book Award. Each year, children from across the state vote on their favorite of the nominees determining a winner for picture, middle grade, and intermediate books. I find the nominees are usually pretty solid selections…sometimes you get a dud and sometimes a stunner but in my opinion, you usually find things in the middle of the road.

But I struck gold with One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, a 2012 nominee for a middle grade YHBA. A teacher dropped it in our library return box singing its praises so I thought I'd give it a shot. After all, a librarian must stay abreast of the latest and greatest, right? Oh, and I should mention it received the Newbery Honor AND the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction AND was a National Book Award Finalist...Williams-Garcia must have done something right.

One Crazy Summer is set in Oakland, California in 1968. Delphine and her 2 little sisters are shipped clear across the country from Brooklyn to the west coast to visit their uninterested mother Cecile, a stranger whom they hardly remember. Expecting Cecile to suddenly act as the mother they've always missed, Delphine and her sisters are sorely disappointed when she wants nothing to do with them. The girls find themselves attending a Black Panther summer camp and getting swept up in a revolution they don't understand.

First of all, the unique setting is very creative. Historical fiction for young readers is often set in a time period covered in history textbooks for 4th graders: the Great Depression, the Civil War, the settlement of the west. You get the idea. But to pick Oakland, California in 1968 and a Black Panther summer camp? Now that isn't something many 10 year olds have thought much about. And to enjoy the book, they don't really have to have any context. But maybe it might spark some interest, might get them asking questions about 1968. What a year it was. Secondly, the absent mother Cecile isn't a popular theme for this age level either. You read about a lot of absent dads but absent moms? The girls don't fall over themselves with emotion about this void. It just is. And Delphine, the narrator, has become a caretaker for her younger siblings. After eating Chinese food night after night, Delphine finally tells Cecile her sisters must have a good meal and bakes them a chicken dinner. But it is so believable. They still fight like sisters, they name call, they can be vain or jealous, they are real characters with flaws but also with resilience and genuine heart. It is a book to remind you how important your siblings are. Finally, the book deals with racisim through the eyes of a child. Fern, the youngest sister, has a white baby doll with blonde hair and blue eyes. Her heart is broken when Vonetta, the middle sister, colors the doll in with black magic marker. It is a very Amy March move that adds to the complicated tension of the pressure the sister's feel with the Black Panthers. This undercurrent of rising racial tension runs throughout the book but seems to play second fiddle to the more strong familial themes and the idea of personal responsibility.

I encourage any late elementary schooler to check out One Crazy Summer from their school library. The setting and time period add to an endearing story about family and what it means to love the one you've got.