One Crazy Summer

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Like, SIT-IN: HOW FOUR FRIENDS STOOD UP BY SITTING DOWN, ONE CRAZY SUMMER is a story that represents an important aspect of African American cultural history. This novel is told in the perspective of a young girl named Delphine who is eleven years old. The novel starts out with Delphine watching her two younger siblings as they take a plane ride to see their biological mother in California. When the girls were very young their mother left and they to be raised by their paternal grandmother and their father. Instead of the exciting reunion that the girls thought that they were going to have with their mother, the girls are pretty much abandoned, and then they are sent to Black Panther meetings. Later in the story the girls see their mother, along with some Black Panthers, arrested. In the end they learn exactly what their mom is doing, what she is fighting for, and they gain a new respect for her.

This story illustrates an important time in African American history, and the historical perspective is very accurate. Even though the story is told through the eyes of an eleven year old girl, the reader can see the important cultural markers, including how families functioned within this culture, some language that is used by the African American culture, as well as how this young lady is perceived by others outside their culture. 

A book that is related to this one is BROWN GIRL DREAMING by Jacqueline Woodson. This story follows Jacqueline Woodson as she is growing up in different parts of the country, and through this story she learns the difference between growing up in the northern states and growing up in the southern states. She records her experiences of seeing marches and what she sees happen afterwards. This would be a great novel to illustrate these times in African American history through poetry.

This novel was reviewed in School Library Journal, the excerpt follows:

Emotionally challenging and beautifully written, this book immerses readers in a time and place and raises difficult questions of cultural and ethnic identity and personal responsibility. With memorable characters (all three girls have engaging, strong voices) and a powerful story, this is a book well worth reading and rereading.—Teri Markson, Los Angeles Public Library

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Citations: 

Williams-Garcia, R. (2010). ONE CRAZY SUMMER. New York, NY: Amistad.

Woodson, J. (2014). BROWN GIRL DREAMING. New York: Penguin.