One Crazy Summer

These sisters go on a summer adventure and discover a whole new way to look at the world. And I did too. This is a good book, but even more it is an important book. This gave me a new way to look at the world. And we aren't told which way is right and which way is wrong. It reinforced to me that this is complicated.

A crazy summer

Delphine and her two younger sisters are off to California to spend a month with their mother. Their mother who they haven't seen in seven years. Their mother is a poet who has renamed herself and she is active with the Black Panthers. It's the sixties and it's a crazy time with a crazy mother the girls really don't know...will they connect?

I love the sixties, and I loved this story about a black family in the sixties during the Black Power movement. It's a wonderfully new point of view for me. It was a delightful story with dynamic and fascinating characters.

OK, like [b:Midwinterblood 10836471 Midwinterblood Marcus Sedgwick https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1319727124s/10836471.jpg 15750616], this is a book I had a lot of misconceptions about? From the cover and title and intended audience, I assumed this was some kind of like fun Judy Moody-style adventure or something? But this book is REAL AS HELL. Like within the first few chapters, the girls' birth mom essentially tells all her kids she should have aborted them. ICE COLD.I loved all three sisters, and I loved how this book makes the Black Power movement really accessible and relevant for tweens?? I think... this might be best read either with help from a parent, or in a classroom setting, because I'm not sure how much historical context a lot of kids would have for this book? White kids especially. But I think it would be a great one for white kids to read, because of the nuanced portrayal of racism and black history and how even if you're well-meaning, you don't necessarily understand someone else's story. (Obviously also a great one for kids of color.)

Summary: Delphine, Fern, and Vonetta go to California in the 1960s to visit their mother whom they haven’t seen in four years. She is not exactly welcoming, and she starts sending the girls to a summer camp run by the Black Panthers. The book traces the girls’ experiences getting to know more about their mother and their African-American heritage. It offers a great inside look at the Black Panther movement of the 60s while maintaining focus on the individual lives of the three girls.