CHILDREN'S BOOKS
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Ages: 9-12
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| Outstanding Book |
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Malcolm X
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Muhammad Ali
(born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.)
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Huey P. Newton, Alameda County Court House Jail, Oakland, September 26,
1968
Huey P. Newton was the founder, leader, and chief
theoretician of the Black Panther Party
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BOOK
ILLUMINATIONS
From Merrimon Book Reviews
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One Crazy Summer
by Rita
Williams-Garcia
In 1968, the world is
in the midst of a great change. In April, Martin Luther King. Jr.
is assassinated, and President Johnson signs the Civil Rights
Act. The Black Panthers organize to promote Black Power in
Oakland. All the news reports and history books
rarely talk about the silent witnesses to these great societal
changes. Who were the children? How did history change
their lives?
In the summer of 1968, eleven year old
Delphine and her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, take a plane
from Brooklyn to
visit their mother Cecile in Oakland, California. Her father and
Big Ma don't exactly approve of crazy Cecile, but keeping the children
from their mother forever is not the solution either. As every
good sister does, Delphine takes care of her younger sisters,
especially now on this new journey and under instructions from her
family to do so. Cecile isn't exactly a fairy tale mother.
Rather than cook homemade meals, she gives them money to buy Chinese
take-out. Cecile's kitchen is off limits. Strange men in
Afros and black berets knock on her door demanding her
assistance. Cecile sends her three daughters to a summer camp
headed by the revolutionary Black Panthers. Delphine's summer in
Oakland isn't exactly the kind of experience her teachers back home
would expect in a "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" essay!
In ONE CRAZY SUMMER, readers see the historical changes through the
eyes of Delphine. With humor, honesty, and innocence, Delphine
comments on the events unfolding before her in the way only a child
can. Delphine is quite conscious of the differences between
blacks and whites in society, yet she is also a girl who responds from
her heart rather than from slogans or mandates from others.
Delphine is intelligent, taking the initiative to educate herself and
to protect her sisters, yet she is still a little girl who longs for a
mother to protect her. In ONE CRAZY SUMMER, Delphine embarks on a
journey that will change her forever, not only in the societal changes
she witnesses but also a journey that will bring her closer to
understanding her mother and herself.
ONE CRAZY SUMMER takes a reader into the heart
of history through the eyes of a child. What better way to tell
the story to young readers? Delphine's voice sees what history
books do not. Through Delphine's eyes, Rita Williams-Garcia gives
life to memorable characters who inspire the imagination.
Delphine's innocence and intelligence pinpoint the essentials in a way
a self-conscious adult does not. Her humor brings a delightful,
refreshing view of the world before her, a view that tempers some of
the tragic events that accompany the struggles of this era. No
matter what one's age, young reader, young adult or adult, ONE CRAZY
SUMMER leaves a reader with the wonderful lasting and speechless
satisfaction of entering a world created by a master storyteller.
In addition to young readers, ONE CRAZY SUMMER is very highly
recommended to all those adults, white and black, who like
Delphine and
this reader, witnessed the unfolding of the Civil Rights Movement in
their hometowns. Quite simply, no other story has spoken to me,
or the child that I was back then, as does this novel. ONE CRAZY
SUMMER gives voice to all those things seen, all those emotions, which
often remain unspoken to others decades later. When I reached the
last line of the author's notes, a tear of joy filled my eye from the
thankfulness that Rita Williams-Garcia put this story in words. ONE
CRAZY SUMMER is an outstanding book, a book this reader expects to win
several awards.
Publisher: Amistad (January 26, 2010)
Author
website
Reviewed by Merrimon,
Merrimon Book Reviews
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