One Crazy Summer

“'We’re not allowed to take money from strangers.’ I said this polite enough to suit Big Ma, but strong enough to suit Papa." Delphine is eleven and she’s doing what she always does which is do what needs to be done. This time she’s on an airplane with her two sisters, Vonetta and Fern. It’s the summer of 1968 and Papa has decided the girls need to know their mother, Cecile. This is the mother who walked out on them after Fern was born. Landing in Oakland, California, the three girls politely wait with the stewardess for their mother to appear. Well, a woman appears wearing dark glasses and men’s pants and she collects them but there’s no sign of any mothering. They have 28 days together. Delphine will be the one to pick up the Chinese carry-out dinners from Mean Lady Ming. Delphine will be the one to shepherd the girls to the free breakfasts and the summer camp run by the Black Panthers. Delphine will be the one who has a few glimpses of herself when she decides to buy groceries and make dinner for a change and when she asks the manager of the Safeway to post the flier about the upcoming event in the park to honor slain Bobby Hutton. Delphine is centered and responsible and wise and young and vulnerable and searching. Here lies treasure. 215 pages