One Crazy Summer Themes

There is no talking about the Black Panthers without talking about race. That would be like talking about Tom Brady without mentioning football—you just can't do it. As Delphine spends time with...

Sometimes books explore friendships between two people, but in the case of One Crazy Summer, friendship really shows up in the form of community, specifically at the Center. After Cecile is arreste...

Delphine sure has a lot of responsibility for an eleven year old in One Crazy Summer. She takes care of Vonetta and Fern, handling the cooking, cleaning, and dreaded bath time schedule, too. In fac...

Kind of feel like you're familiar with the whole kids-abandoned-by-their-mom story line? To be fair, it comes up pretty often in TV, movies, and books. But One Crazy Summer takes this old familiar...

Us humans have issues with prejudice—whether it takes the form of bullying, stereotyping, or blatant racism. Seriously, just pause to think about; we're betting you can identify prejudice you've...

In the words of some dead old Danish windbag, "to thine own self be true." Sounds simple enough. But what if you don't know who you are? Delphine is still figuring that part out in One Crazy Summer...

We know poetry isn't everybody's thing, but it's a really big deal in One Crazy Summer. First off, Cecile—or should we say Nzila—writes poetry as a way of expressing herself and the feelings of...

We know that memories don't really work the way real life does. They are disjointed, fuzzy, and often a little confusing, and we remember what we think happened rather than what actually went down....