kmortman04liked a comment in One Crazy Summer.

One Crazy Summer

In the book One Crazy Summer, written by Rita Williams-Garcia, you get whisked away back to Oakland in the 1960s. The main characters are the three sisters, Delphine the oldest, Vonetta the attention grabber, and Fern, the youngest, and their mom who left them when they were at a young age, whose name is Cecile. The setting of the book is Oakland 1960s, a time of protests, “hippies”, and Black Panthers. Three young motherless girls go to visit their mom, but get caught amidst the protests and rebellions, and discrimination and the fought for peace. The way Williams-Garcia writes really captures you into the moment, and gives you a very descriptive 1st person view. You get to see what 1960s Oakland was like and learn more about the freedom fighters and their battle for similar rights and to be treated the same. The author made the book funny by the way they portrayed the characters reacting to one another and how they treated each other. “Cecile and two Black Panthers. Hands behind their backs. Handcuffed. Being let out of the house and down the walkway. I could hardly breathe.”. Rita Williams-Garcia grew up in different parts of New York, writing short stories her entire life. She has written numerous books, which have won the awards Coretta Scott King Award, National Book Award Finalists, Newbery Honor Book, Junior Library Guild, and the Scott O’Dell Prize for Historical Fiction. The book caused me to feel scared, happy, joyful, and open my eyes up a little bit more. You know how when you read, you get sucked up into the book and feel like you are really there with the characters. In One Crazy Summer, you see how black people felt being discriminated and treated in the 1960s, and see through their eyes how they saw everything, and you learn the two completely different sides of discrimination. It’s a really good book to read that I would personally recommend to anyone, since you learn more and broaden your horizon to other people’s experiences.

About 7 years ago