978-0-545-437516

    
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

The cover of this book has 4 medal stickers on it! Set in 1968, this historical novel is strongly focused on the family in the story, rather than the history. (Some historical fiction seems to get bogged down in filling in the details of the history--not this one.) Everything we learn about the time, we learn through the eyes of the main character. Delphine and her sisters have just been sent to spend a month with their mother, who left when the youngest was just a baby. Delphine, the oldest sister, who narrates the story, has only hazy memories of her mother, whom she calls Cecile. And the memories are strange--did her mother really write poems on the walls? Did she really leave because her husband wouldn't let her name the baby? And how should Delphine think of her mother now? Cecile doesn't seem to want her children around. She sends them off to the community center every day while she prints poems on her secret printing press and meets with her friends from the Black Panthers. When Cecile gets arrested for her work, the girls are even more on their own. Gradually they learn a little more about the Black Panthers, a political action group working for civil rights and social justice. Many people at the time were afraid of the Panthers, but these adults make sure the girls are safe, and give Delphine a sense of purpose that helps her be strong for her sisters. You'll definitely want to learn more about the time period after reading this book. Kids will be amazed at the freedom the girls have to move around the city of San Francisco, and Delphine is a great model of bravery and resourcefulness.