One Crazy Summer

(Garcia, Rita. One crazy summer . New York: Amistad, 2010. Print. )

Summary: Delphine has high hopes when her father and her grandmother send her and her two sisters to Oakland, California from Brooklyn to visit their mother, Cecile, who abandoned them seven years earlier. During this summer, Delphine takes care of her sisters, learns about her mother, and attends summer camp run by the Black Panthers, receiving a radical education and gaining new, and sometimes scary, experiences. 



 

Women outside the Black Panther headquarters in Oakland,California 



Reading Level: Ages 9-12, Lexile 750L



Key words/phrases:

    1. Civil Rights Movement

    2. 1968 Oakland California

    3. Black Panthers

    4. Summer Vacation

    5. African Americans

Suggested Delivery: Small group

Electronic Resources:

1.    MIA: History: USA: The Black Panther Party details the Black Panther party and its history in Oakland, California.

2.    The 1968 Exhibit outlines The 1968 Project and provides a blog and a timeline which outline important events that occurred on a national and international level.  It also provides educator resources such as classroom supports and standards connections.

3.   This book is available to purchase as an audio book at The Audio Book Store.
4.   Pan-African News Wire Blog: “Oakland Origins of The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense” gives the background on the Black Panthers in Oakland, California.

Teaching Suggestions:

Key Vocabulary: Hippies,  Infiltrate, Stucco, Migrant, Washboard, Perfectionist, COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program)

Reading Strategies to increase comprehension

   Before: Background should be provided to the student about Oakland, California and the nation in general in 1968. The above websites would be helpful in providing background information and having the students gain understanding of the feelings in this time. After looking at the websites, students can predict what they think will happen in the book. 

During: Provide the student with the reading guide below to help the student focus on important aspects of the story. Have the students jot down their thoughts in a reading journal to discuss when meeting in a small group with the other students who are reading this book.

1.      After reading page 29: What is Delphine expecting when she is about to meet her mother? Do you think her mother will meet her expectations or disappoint her?

2.      After reading page 48: Do you agree with Delphine’s opinion that her mother is crazy? Do you think Delphine’s expectations of Cecile make Cecile seem crazier or perhaps prejudged to be crazy by Delphine?

3.      After reading pg. 49: Do you think inside Delphine is less practical, strong and matter-of-fact as she declares? What do you think Cecile has in the kitchen? Would you go to the Center if you were Delphine and her sisters?

4.       After reading page 67: Do you think it matters that Fern’s doll doesn’t look like her? Is Crazy Kelvin right?

5.      After reading page 79: Why do you think Cecile is worried about the FBI and the COINTELPRO?

6.      After reading page 85: Why do you think Delphine feels so strongly about her name? Do you agree with her feelings about names being important?

7.      After reading page 87: Why does Delphine’s opinion about the center change?

8.      After reading page 91: Why does Vonetta not stand up to the Ankton sister but instead sides with them?

9.      After reading page 94: Does your opninon of Cecile change after she breaks up the fight? Why doesn’t Delphine break up the fight?

10.  After reading page 110: Do you agree with Cecile’s description of Delphine?

11.  After reading page 120: Does Cecile listen to the sisters when she gives them the radio? What might her motivation be for giving them the radio?

12.  After reading page 125: Why doesn’t Papa tell Big Ma what happened? What might make you think Big Ma already knows? How \would she already know?

13.  After reading page 132: What is the significance of “Dry your eyes”?

14.  After reading page 135: How does Delphine describe her mom’s voice? But how does she describe her on the next page?

15.  After reading page 149: What do you think Cecile’s poem means?

16.  After reading page 155: Does Cecile’s comment show’s she cares?

17.  After reading page 158: What do you think Fern saw?

18.  After reading page 167: Why do you think Cecile was arrested?

19.  After reading page 169: Why would Cecile deny them? Why does Delphine go along with it?

20.  After reading page 179: Why doesn’t Delphine want to leave Oakland?

21.  After reading page 181: Do you think Fern seeing something has to do with crazy Kelvin?

22.  After reading page 198: What was Kelvin’s secret? Were you surprised? Why does he act like he does earlier in the story then?

23.  After reading page 201: Do you sense a shift in feelings toward Cecile by Delphine and her sisters?

24.  After reading page 215: What was the thing that they all needed from their mother?

   After: In a small group, discuss the changes Delphine and Cecile’s relationship underwent. Would the students have predicted this changed form the first couple of chapters? What choices and events by both characters helped them change? Also discuss whether the book title (One Crazy Summer) is appropriate for this book and how.

 Rita Williams-Garcia

Writing activity demonstrating inferential comprehension: Students can write a letter either from the perspective of Cecile to Delphine, or from the perspective of Delphine to Cecile, dated one year from the end of the story. The students will answer and reflect on the following questions: What do you imagine their relationship to now be like? Will they have visited each other since the summer in the book ended? Will their relationship have gotten better or worse? Make references to events in the story and events that you think might happen during this year in your letter.