One Crazy Summer: A Newbery Honor Award Winner

In this Newbery Honor novel New York Times bestselling author Rita WilliamsGarcia 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 readingtake this book along on a family road trip or enjoy it at homeThis 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 PS Be Eleven and Gone Crazy in AlabamaReaders 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 WilliamsGarcia 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 booksIn One Crazy Summer elevenyearold 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 imaginedWhile 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 summerThis 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 originalThis vibrant and moving awardwinning novel has heart to spare commented Olugbemisola RhudayPerkovich in her Brightly article Knowing Our History to Build a Brighter Future Books to Help Kids Understand the Fight for Racial EqualityRita WilliamsGarcia 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