One Crazy Summer
Series: One Crazy Summer, Book 1
By: Rita Williams-Garcia / Narrated By: Sisi Aisha Johnson
Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
The first gem in a truly wonderful series
Eleven-year old Delphine and her little sisters are bound for Oakland, California in One Crazy Summer, all at a time when the Black Panthers rule, Vietnam is in full swing, and poetry is the lifeblood of their mother, Cecile. Cecile abandoned them years ago, but Pa thinks it’s about time they got to know her and is willing to send them all the way from New York. The three sisters go, all the time hoping they don’t make a Grand Negro Spectacle of themselves as Big Ma, their grandmother has warned them not to do. Actually, it’s mostly Delphine who worries about this, as she’s the one who’s basically had to look after all of them, old beyond her years.
Sisi Aisha Johnson narrates the story perfectly, capturing Delphine’s strong spirit, her determination to always do the right thing, no matter how hard. Johnson also manages to deliver the voices of many characters well, from hard-driving Big Ma, fractious Vonetta and Fern, the little sisters, and dignified yet angry Cecile. Her performance makes the audiobook a wonderful jaunt into another time and place where Revolution is called for as little orange juice cartons are passed around, where The Pigs are the enemy, where anybody who is white is viewed as most likely racist. She does a great job, and I know that I’ll get around to reviewing the next two audiobooks in the series soon as she made me truly love Delphine.
I find it interesting that I listened to both One Crazy Summer and Coffee Will Make You Black during the same week, as they both take place around the same time, dealing with the same issues, but each comes out being totally unique. CWMYB is hard-hitting whereas One Crazy Summer captures it all and conveys it through the eyes of an innocent. All in all, I preferred the latter to the former because Delphine came off with more spirit and wasn’t such putty in the hands of other people. She has a stubborn streak a mile-wide, has to bite back words she might regret, and she has a sweet sensitivity of soul. Truly, a wonderful character creation.
Be prepared to listen about a crazy era as viewed by an eleven-year old going on thirty, one who cooks dinner, cleans the kitchen, scrubs ink off dolls, rides a flying go-cart, and takes care of her sisters even when Cecile is jailed with the Black Panthers. I s’pose that’s where I had the only problem that I did. In the similarities between Cecile’s childhood and the childhood of Delphine. Cecile had to grow up early because Life threw too many curves. But for Delphine? Well, Cecile’s actions chose her childhood/early arrival into adulthood for her. Still, I wound up liking Cecile when all was said and done, and I look forward to listening to the developing relationship between the two.
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! Can’t wait for the next two in the series!
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