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1-Page Summary of One Crazy Summer
Overall Summary
One Crazy Summer is a historical novel that was published in 2009. It’s about Delphine, Vonetta and Afua “Fern” Gaither who go to Oakland, California to spend the summer with their mother Cecile Johnson.
The sisters go to Oakland, California to meet their mother. They were excited and thought that they would finally get a good meal. However, Cecile (their mother) arrives late and is embarrassed to be seen with her daughters. When they arrive at Cecile’s house, the girls are shocked when Delphine discovers that it is a regular house because Big Ma always told stories about how homeless she was. In addition, the girls are also shocked when their mother asks them to buy Chinese takeout for dinner instead of cooking them a real meal. Cecile refuses to allow anyone in the kitchen as well as allowing any help from her daughters by telling them that she’ll do everything herself even though she doesn’t know how. As the girls prepare for bed one night, three members of Black Panthers show up asking Cecile if they can use her printer since hers broke down on them while printing out flyers for an upcoming rally against police brutality during which time they call her “Nzila” which means “sister” in Swahili but Delphine and Mae Mobley don’t understand why these men are calling their mom by this name or what it means until later on in life when Nzila becomes more popularly known as Angela Davis who was one of America’s most wanted women back then due to being involved with numerous crimes including murder charges which made both Delphine and Mae Mobley realize why these men were calling Nzila sister considering all of those things happened around this time period too along with other major events such as Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination so now you know why I was saying earlier about how some books have historical significance even though not many people may think so at first glance like I said before…
The Gaither sisters wake up the next morning and realize that they’re going to be spending their days at a community center. They meet their teacher, Sister Mukumbu, who is kind and welcoming. Fern has a difficult first day when she’s confronted by Crazy Kelvin for carrying around a white doll. Vonetta starts making friends with other kids on the second day. A member of the Black Panthers constantly ridicules them for not being “black enough,” which prompts Delphine to watch over her sisters at the People’s Center. After one incident involving Vonetta coloring Fern’s white doll with black marker ink, Fern stops carrying her doll around after this incident.
When Delphine returns home, she forces Cecile to let her cook for the family. She’s been eating takeout food every night since coming home from college. While in the kitchen, Delphine notices that cooking is very important to Cecile and that she has a printing press in her room. It turns out that Cecile writes poems under the pen name Nzila and prints them on this press. She warns Delphine not to take on so many responsibilities because it will only hurt her chances of getting into law school.
Delphine eventually makes friends at the People’s Center, including Hirohito Woods and Eunice. Delphine hears stories about violence at the center that terrify her. She decides not to go back to the center or participate in a rally for Bobby Hutton, who was killed by police earlier that year. Cecile forces Delphine and her sisters to continue attending the center and participating in rallies despite their fears. Although she is upset with Cecile, Delphine is pleased when Cecile allows her into the kitchen to touch a printing press for the first time.
