Kirkus Best Books of the Year
2025 · Middle-Grade Family Stories
About This Book
Eleven-year-old Delphine has it together. Even though her mother, Cecile, abandoned her and her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, seven years ago. Even though her father and Big Ma will send them from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to stay with Cecile for the summer. And even though Delphine will have to take care of her sisters, as usual, and learn the truth about the missing pieces of the past.
When the girls arrive in Oakland in the summer of 1968, Cecile wants nothing to do with them. She makes them eat Chinese takeout dinners, forbids them to enter her kitchen, and never explains the strange visitors with Afros and black berets who knock on her door. Rather than spend time with them, Cecile sends Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern to a summer camp sponsored by a revolutionary group, the Black Panthers, where the girls get a radical new education.
Set during one of the most tumultuous years in recent American history, one crazy summer is the heartbreaking, funny tale of three girls in search of the mother who abandoned them--an unforgettable story told by a distinguished author of books for children and teens, Rita Williams-Garcia.
When the girls arrive in Oakland in the summer of 1968, Cecile wants nothing to do with them. She makes them eat Chinese takeout dinners, forbids them to enter her kitchen, and never explains the strange visitors with Afros and black berets who knock on her door. Rather than spend time with them, Cecile sends Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern to a summer camp sponsored by a revolutionary group, the Black Panthers, where the girls get a radical new education.
Set during one of the most tumultuous years in recent American history, one crazy summer is the heartbreaking, funny tale of three girls in search of the mother who abandoned them--an unforgettable story told by a distinguished author of books for children and teens, Rita Williams-Garcia.
Series Placement
Book 1
Book 1
Awards
California Young Reader Medal
2014 · Middle School · Nominee
Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award
2014 · Grades 3-5 · Nominee
Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award
2014 · Grades 6-8 · Nominee
North Carolina Children's Book Award
2013 · Junior Book · Nominee
Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award
2013 · Grades 4-8 · Nominee
Sequoyah Book Award
2013 · Intermediate · Nominee
Young Hoosier Book Award
2013 · Intermediate · Nominee
Charlie May Simon Children's Book Award
2012 · Grades 4-6 · Nominee
Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award
2012 · Children's · Nominee
Georgia Children's Book Award
2012 · Children's Book (Grades 4 - 8) · Nominee
Land of Enchantment Book Award
2012 · Children's · Nominee
Massachusetts Children's Book Award
2012 · Children's Book · Nominee
Rhode Island Children's Book Award
2012 · Grades 3-6 · Nominee
Volunteer State Book Award
2012 · Middle School · Nominee
West Virginia Children's Book Award
2012 · Children's · Nominee
Black-Eyed Susan Award
2011 · Grades 6-9 · Nominee
Capitol Choices: Noteworthy Books for Children and Teens
2011 · Ten to Fourteen · Recommended
Coretta Scott King Award
2011 · Author · Winner
Scott O Dell Award for Historical Fiction
2011 · Historical Fiction · Winner
Newbery Medal
2011 · Children's · Honor Book
National Book Award
2010 · Young People's Literature · Finalist
Parents Choice Award (Fall) (2008-Up)
2010 · Fiction · Gold Medal Winner
