She comes to recognize shades of gray in the world, noticing the good that comes with the bad and the bad that comes with the good. Screamed and hiccupped and laughed like my sisters. Growing up white is far, far different than growing up black in this country(many of you will go DUH! endobj Below are two reviews from my students. She's had to be, ever since their mother, Cecile, left them seven years ago for a radical new life in California. But this book is much more than a story about family, it takes you on a journey back to the year 1968 and the civil rights movement. This is different from what Delphine had known because she thought she just talked to herself because she was crazy. It's the kind of moment a mother is supposed to help her child have, and in her own non-traditional way, Cecile kind of does help Delphine have this classic childhood experience. we all gave it it one star. My girls were able identify and relate with the sisters. Delphine Selfless Sister . Delphine Gaither is the main character and narrator of the novel “One Crazy Summer” by Rita Williams-Garcia. I read this with my eight-year-old, and she loved it, but I think she would have gotten more out of it in another year or two. She is in situations that have the potential to be very emotional, yet she reports the events as just mere facts which makes it funny. white people were not all bad back then and the panthers were way to racial. One Crazy Summer, a historical tale that is both funny and powerful, is a story about family, friends, and sacrifice. Unexpectedly, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern learn much about their family, their country, and themselves during one truly crazy summer. We are ready to move on the Be Eleven which is the next book to this series. Thanks to the kids she meets at the Center, Delphine ultimately finds herself challenged to let loose a little and have fun. Three sisters: Delphine, eleven years old; Vonetta, nine years old; and Fern, seven years old, travel from Brooklyn, New York, to Oakland, California, to visit their mother, Cecile. Their mother who they haven't seen in seven years. It also reinforced our lesson plan about the BPP movement. Their birth mother, Cecile, is in Oakland, California, doing her own thing during the summer of 1968. I am a conservative woman who chose to read this book as I am looking for books to recommend to my kids. Most fiction I read tends to be about white middle-class experiences. Cecile eventually tells her 11-year-old daughter about her own mother dying, being treated badly by her aunt, and being homeless at age 16 when she accepted an offer from a man and his brother to stay at their home. This would eventually be the girls' father. Chapters 26-33. Award-winning young adult author Rita Williams-Garcia's first book aimed at tweens has been getting a lot of "buzz" in the children's book community, and I was eager to read it for myself. I think this would be a great novel to open up discussion for my 5th and 6th grade students. One should not generalize from this telling on aspects of black family life: A mother who fails at mothering, a black grandmother who prefers the "establishment" ways too often, a father who shacked up with a too-young "woman"--producing three children; a woman who eventually abandons the partnership and her own children. If you are at an office or shared network, you can ask the network administrator to run a scan across the network looking for misconfigured or infected devices. It also encouraged me to reflect on the complex relationships that exist between mothers and daughters...most are doing the best they can with what they have, what they know and who they are. Flown to Oakland, CA (virtually against their will), they are destined to spend their summer with their seemingly indifferent mother, Cecile. Chapters 17-21. ★ Essay Topics. I really liked the way the struggles of racism were told in personal ways, like hearing what a cop calls your beloved dad, counting the "colored" people on tv, and being warned by Big Ma (grandma) not to make a "grand negro spectacle" in front of white people made the racism personal and exposed how ridiculous and hurtful racism is. When I heard that her book was about the Black Panthers, however, my interest was piqued. Themes. Keep Vonetta and Fern in line" (1.5), we feel like we've seen her type before. Delphine is the wise, motherly, oldest sister who keeps close watch over Vonetta and Fern. Chapters 12-16. <> It's a fun and phenomenal read. You can visit her online at www.ritawg.com. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. Character Analysis. By Rita Williams-Garcia. Symbols & Motifs. I would recommend this novel for grades 6 through 8, an age which would understand what is going on.