Book Review: One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Elena is Novel Novice’s new Middle Grade reviewer. Elena is 11 years old and she is in 5th grade. She LOVES to read and adores her pet guinea pig and gerbil. She also draws and paints a lot.

I read a book called One Crazy Summer recently and I enjoyed it very much. I thought I should review it because it is also a nominee for the Newbery Award.

This book is about three African American girls who travel across the country to see their mother, but find she seems to have forgotten what a mother is like. Every night she has them go to get Chinese takeout, and it makes them sick. Also, she never lets them enter the kitchen, because that is where she works. (She writes poetry.)

But when they get sent to a camp hosted by the Black Panthers, quite a few things change for them.

First of all, they don’t have to eat takeout for breakfast. But second, they learn more about the rights black people have, and how some people didn’t respect those rights.

They also find out that their mother, Cecile, writes poetry for the Black Panthers.

When their camp hosts a rally, every child participating in the camp gets to perform. I thought that it was very sweet of the sisters to perform one of their mother’s poems.

But all of these events were not the point of the book. I think there were a lot of messages, but at the end of the book, all the situations needed one thing: love.

Note: On Monday, One Crazy Summer received a Newbery Honor and received the Coretta Scott King Award at the ALA’s Youth Media Awards!