One Crazy Summer

Williams-Garcia, R. (2010). One crazy summer. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

This book is about three young girls who live in Brooklyn with their father in 1968. They are African American and their mother left them when they were very young. The book is told from Delphine's, the oldest at 11, perspective. She writes in a very mature voice and is concerned about the safety of her two younger sisters Vonetta and Fern. They go to live with their mother for the summer in Oakland, California and the book is about their relationship with their mom. At first, their mother is awful to them. She uses their money for herself, does not provide food for them, and is not nurturing or caring in any way. She never explains the strange visitors with Afros and black berets that come to the door. She does not spend much time with them, but rather sends them to a radical Black Panthers summer camp where the girls get an interesting education. Overall, it is a funny yet powerful book about these changing times in US history.

I would use this in the classroom to talk about estranged relationships as well as different ideologies in the country during the 60's. It would be very easy to tie this book in with perhaps what they were learning in Social Studies at the time.