Author:  Rita Williams-Garcia

Awards:2018 NAACP Image Award for Young Adult and Middle Grade Literature

Synopsis:Clayton wants to be just like his Grandpa, Cool Papa, and play the blues with the Bluesmen.  The dream is threatened when Cool Papa dies and Clayton's mother forbids him from playing his blues harp.  Clayton runs away to try to find the Bluesmen and join them on the road, but discovers that the grieving process and family baggage are heavier than he thought.

Grade:  5-7

Genre:Historical Fiction

Citation:Goodreads, Scholastic Book Wizard

AUTHOR: New York Times bestselling author, African American, born in 1957

AWARDS: Newberry Honor, Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, Coretta Scott King Award, National Book Award Finalist 

SYNOPSIS:  Eleven-year-old Delphine & younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern travel from Brooklyn, NY to Oakland, California in 1968 to meet their mother, Cecile, who abandoned them seven years ago. Cecile sends her three daughters to a day camp run by the Black Panthers. Unexpectedly, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern learn much about their family, their country, and themselves during one truly crazy summer.

GRADES: 3-5

GENRE: Historical Fiction

CITATION: One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia. (2010, January 26). Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6609764-one-crazy-summer

Delphine is eleven, going on twelve and yet she is responsible for her two younger sisters. Their mother left when Fern, the youngest, was still a baby and they are being raised by their father and grandmother (Big Ma). One summer they fly to California to spend time with their mother. She is not what they expect, and she doesn't seem happy to see them. Their mother sends them to the community center to have breakfast and get them out of her house. There the sisters get to spend time with members of the Black Panthers who run the center and provide local children with breakfast and day camp.

I liked this story. It gave us a look inside the sixties and what life was like for young black girls. We see how hard it is for the girls not to know their mother and when they finally meet her, she is distant and unfriendly. Delphine is a strong girl who doesn't take crap from anyone. It is hard for her to just be eleven when she has so much responsibility. She stands up for herself and her sisters and by the end of the visit, they finally start to connect with their mother.

This is a great book and highly recommended for readers, especially girls. Fans of realistic fiction or historical fiction should enjoy this one.

Can you tell I've been catching up on middle grade?

After a summer spent living with their long estranged mother, the sisters arrive home only to find everything changing around them. Their uncle is back from Vietnam with a sickness he just can't shake, and their dad has a new lady friend. 

This series is great. The characters are all fantastic, and the historical backdrop is fascinating. Plot-wise, this one is a bit predictable, but in ways that don't diminish the reading experience. This is an emotional juggernaut, and not a mystery novel, after all. Knowing what's going to happen just makes the scenes before even more bittersweet. 

When I read One Crazy Summer, I had no idea this was a series. I'm so glad Ladybusiness reviewed this volume or I might have missed out altogether. There's a third one, set in Alabama!

I haven't finished a book in a while and I'm already a few books behind on reviews. So instead I'm making a short list of book recommendations with the common thread of all being set near where I live. My stomping grounds are the American south, specifically northern Alabama. 

 Up first, recent release Storm in a Teacup is set largely in Nashville, not quite two hours from here. In this world, Alabama has been lost to demon hordes in the recent past. Book two visits a few locations even closer to the state line and includes a flashback to the fall of the deep south.

 Next, a memoir in the form of verse recounting the experiences of the author after moving from Vietnam to Alabama. This is intended for a middle grade audience, but is a good read for anyone, really.

 Finally, a difficult to find biography of Huntsville, Alabama's first undertaker. Written by one of his daughters in the 50's, this is as much about Huntsville in the 20's as it is about one man.

Bonus: two books I'm looking forward to reading that are also set in Alabama:

Where are you from? What should I read that is set there?