One Crazy Summer won all sorts of awards, including a Newbery honor. It is my kind of middle grade, historical fiction.
By 1968, life had changed for all African Americans. Some were comfortable demanding their civil rights and some where stuck in the status-quo. But twelve year old Delphine reminded me of how few Black role models were on TV at the time, how none were part of the local police departments and even how her little sister Fern could have only a White baby doll.
Delphine and her two younger sisters are sent by their father across the country to Oakland to spend a month with their mother, who had abandoned them years before. The girls, disappointed that their mother doesn't want them there, are even more shocked that their mother is a Black Panther.
Delphine is used to taking care of her little sisters Violetta and Fern, but finds it trying that Cecile, her mother, kicks them out of the house every morning to have breakfast and go to day camp at the Black Panther People's Center. At first, Delphine can't get used to all the talk of revolution and the people's rights. Delphine and her sisters were raised by their southern father and grandmother who gave her old fashioned values and taught her how colored children "should" act in front of white folk. At the Black Panther People's Center, Delphine finds friends among the neighborhood children--and pride in being a Black child.
Their mother Cecile continues to ignore them and devote herself to her poetry. At times I wanted to just slap this cruel mother who wished these girls away. But Delphine protects her sisters and organizes an outing to San Francisco. They have a wonderful day enjoying China Town and Fisherman's Wharf and riding a cable car. Delphine is anxious to tell her mother about the day ,but when they arrive home the police are taking Cecile away. Quick thinking Delphine manages to act like they belong to another mother so they are spared being taken into custody too. Friends from the center take them in while Cecile is waiting release. In the end, Delphine doesn't reconcile with her mother the way she'd like to, but she comes to understand why Cecile left them behind.
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