Editorial Content for Gone Crazy in Alabama
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern Gaither are back! With Delphine in charge, the trio --- now 12, 10 and 8 years of age, respectively --- head to Alabama to spend the summer of 1969 with their grandmother (Big Ma) and great-grandmother (Ma Charles). Obviously, the Deep South is nothing like Brooklyn, New York. There are a slew of unexpected experiences, which keep Delphine constantly on her toes since she has to deal with Vonetta's and Fern's outspoken viewpoints and persnickety ways. It doesn't help that Ma Charles has an estranged relationship with her stepsister, even though Delphine discovers eye-popping information about the Gaither ancestry along the way. Yet all the Alabama craziness pales in comparison to when Vonetta suddenly disappears during a tornado.
A storyteller extraordinaire, Williams-Garcia's forte is in creating multihued and multifaceted characters within an equally multihued and multifaceted plot.
Award-winning author Rita Williams-Garcia combines genealogy and southern adventures in the third and final chapter of the beloved Gaither sisters. As in Williams-Garcia's companion novels, ONE CRAZY SUMMER and its sequel P.S. BE ELEVEN, Delphine follows as the principal heroine and featured narrator in GONE CRAZY IN ALABAMA. Williams-Garcia unfolds the continuing saga of three girls who have to face life --- most often alone --- amid dysfunctional familial circumstances, and this time in the Deep South. Of course, someone needs to be watching out for the younger siblings. This is where Delphine takes the lead role as she and her sisters share in a mixed set of experiences, including the Apollo 11 moon landing, racial tension, the KKK and the complex world of Big Ma and Ma Charles.
A storyteller extraordinaire, Williams-Garcia's forte is in creating multihued and multifaceted characters within an equally multihued and multifaceted plot that is delicately replete with African American history. While much of the embedded history is familiar to most, Williams-Garcia also smartly stitches in little known pieces, including Delphine's list of classic African American literature (THINGS FALL APART by Chinua Achebe, THE SOUL BROTHERS AND SISTER LOU by Kristen Hunter Lattany and THE OUTSIDER by Richard Wright) and African American genealogy that includes Native Americans and descendants of Creek Freedmen.
Heartwarming, uproariously funny, and filled with nonstop adventures, GONE CRAZY IN ALABAMA is indubitably a must-read for all Delphine-Vonetta-Fern fans.
Teaser
Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are off to Alabama to visit their grandmother and her mother, Ma Charles. Across the way lives Ma Charles's half sister, Miss Trotter. The two half sisters haven't spoken in years. As Delphine hears about her family history, she uncovers the surprising truth that's been keeping the sisters apart. But when tragedy strikes, Delphine discovers that the bonds of family run deeper than she ever knew possible.
Promo
Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are off to Alabama to visit their grandmother and her mother, Ma Charles. Across the way lives Ma Charles's half sister, Miss Trotter. The two half sisters haven't spoken in years. As Delphine hears about her family history, she uncovers the surprising truth that's been keeping the sisters apart. But when tragedy strikes, Delphine discovers that the bonds of family run deeper than she ever knew possible.
About the Book
Newbery Honor winner and New York Times bestselling author Rita Williams-Garcia tells the story of the Gaither sisters, who are about to learn what it's like to be fish out of water as they travel from the streets of Brooklyn to the rural South for the summer of a lifetime.
Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are off to Alabama to visit their grandmother, Big Ma, and her mother, Ma Charles. Across the way lives Ma Charles's half sister, Miss Trotter. The two half sisters haven't spoken in years. As Delphine hears about her family history, she uncovers the surprising truth that's been keeping the sisters apart. But when tragedy strikes, Delphine discovers that the bonds of family run deeper than she ever knew possible.
Powerful and humorous, this companion to the award-winning ONE CRAZY SUMMER and P.S. BE ELEVEN will be enjoyed by fans of the first two books as well as by readers meeting these memorable sisters for the first time.
