One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia is a Newbery Honor Book for 2010. The story takes place in 1968 during a time in America's history when African Americans were demanding equal rights. But the book is mostly about family. Three young girls are put on a plane in New York by their father to go to California, where he wants them to get to know their mother. She left them when they were very young and they have grown up without a mother. Unfortunately when they get to California, their poet mother Cecile doesn't seem to have any interest in getting to know them. She sends them off to a daily summer camp with Black Panthers, a revolutionary group that was active in the Civil Rights Movement. You will have to read the book to find out how the summer brings about changes in the girls and their mother.
