In this Newbery Honor novel New York Times bestselling author Rita Williams-Garcia 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 the sisters 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. This novel was the first featured title for Marley D's Reading Party launched
after the success of #1000BlackGirlBooks. Maria Russo in a New York Times list of great kids'
books with diverse characters called it witty and original. This vibrant and moving
award-winning novel has heart to spare commented Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich in her Brightly
article Knowing Our History to Build a Brighter Future: Books to Help Kids Understand the Fight
for Racial Equality. Rita Williams-Garcia is one of the preeminent authors of our time. She has
been honored with the Children's Literature Lecture Award from the American Library
Association.
