One Crazy Summer

One Crazy Summer

Written by: Rita Williams-Garcia

Upper Elementary and Junior High Grades

*2011 Coretta Scott King Award Winner, Newberry Honor Book, National Book Award Finalist*

"Eleven-year-old Delphine has it together. Even though her mother, Cecile, abandoned her and her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, seven years ago. Even though her father and Big Ma will send them from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to stay with Cecile for the summer. And even though Delphine will have to take care of her sisters, as usual, and learn the truth about the missing pieces of the past.

When the girls arrive in Oakland in the summer of 1968, Cecile wants nothing to do with them. She makes them eat Chinese takeout dinners, forbids them to enter her kitchen, and never explains the strange visitors with Afros and black berets who knock on her door. Rather than spend time with them, Cecile sends Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern to a summer camp sponsored by a revolutionary group, the Black Panthers, where the girls get a radical new education.

Set during one of the most tumultuous years in recent American history, one crazy summer is the heartbreaking, funny tale of three girls in search of the mother who abandoned them—an unforgettable story told by a distinguished author of books for children and teens, Rita Williams-Garcia."

Publishers Description

Online Resources:
http://www.ritawg.com/

A Single Shard

A Single Shard

Written by: Linda Sue Park

Upper Elementary and Junior High Grades

"Set in 12th century Korea, this is the story of Tree-ear who lives under a bridge with his disabled older friend Crane-man. Tree-ear becomes fascinated with the potter's craft and longs to create celadon ceramics. However pottery is a trade passed on from father to son and Tree-ear is an orphan. He works long and hard hoping to become an apprentice."

Publishers Description

Online Resources:
http://eduscapes.com/newbery/02a.htm

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Written by: Grace Lin

Upper Elementary Grades

"In the valley of Fruitless mountain, a young girl named Minli lives in a ramshackle hut with her parents. In the evenings, her father regales her with old folktales of the Jade Dragon and the Old Man of the Moon, who knows the answers to all of life's questions. Inspired by these stories, Minli sets off on an extraordinary journey to find the Old Man of the Moon to ask him how she can change her family's fortune. She encounters an assorted cast of characters and magical creatures along the way, including a dragon who accompanies her on her quest for the ultimate answer."

Publishers Synopsis

Online Resources:
http://www.gracelin.com/content.php?page=wherethemountainmeetsthemoon

After Tupac and D Foster

After Tupac and D Foster

Written by: Jacqueline Woodson

Junior High and High School Grades

“The summer before D Foster’s real mama came and took her away, Tupac wasn’t dead yet.” From this first line in her quiet, powerful novel, Woodson cycles backward through the events that lead to dual tragedies: a friend’s departure and a hero’s death. In a close-knit African American neighborhood in Queens, New York, the unnamed narrator lives across from her best friend, Neeka. Then D Foster wanders onto the block, and the three 11-year-old girls quickly become inseparable. Because readers know from the start where the plot is headed, the characters and the community form the focus here. A subplot about Neeka’s older brother, a gay man serving prison time after being framed for a hate crime, sometimes threatens to overwhelm the girls’ story. But Woodson balances the plotlines with subtle details, authentic language, and rich development. Beautifully capturing the girls’ passage from childhood to adolescence, this is a memorable, affecting novel about the sustaining power of love and friendship and each girl’s developing faith in her own “Big Purpose.”

Booklist Review

Web Resources:
http://www.jacquelinewoodson.com/ya.shtml