One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

This was the perfect book to read on my flight last night from DC to Minneapolis. A two-hour read that was pure joy! For some reason I seem to be connecting with a lot of novels that have eleven-year-old girls as the narrator! This one is black, and her story unfolds in 1968 when she travels to Oakland with her two younger sisters to meet her mother. She also connects with the Black Panthers. It's a moving story, a fun story, a tragic story, and a thought-provoking story. Melissa lent it to me and told me it was good--she was right! I especially enjoyed it because of my own connections to the Bay Area and the Black Panthers and 1968. (We hosted Eldridge Cleaver in our home years later in Napa...) It was a flashback into a familiar time, but the culture was very foreign and enlightening to read about. It's considered a "youth" book, and is one of those rare ones that is just as enjoyable and uplifiting for adults as it is for youths... There could be fruitful discussions about identity related to this book and the way that Delphine's identity develops and changes in the course of the story. Parts of the story poetic and poignant. An amazing accomplishment to hit all these themes and still be mostly light and engaging too.