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From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

When her dad sends eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, to Oakland, California, during the summer of 1968 so they can get to know their mother, Delphine has low expectations. That’s a good thing, since Cecile, who abandoned them years before, seems to resent their very existence. Known in the Black community as Nzila, Cecile is a poet. She keeps a printing press in her kitchen and needs time and space uninterrupted by boisterous children so she can write and print her work. She sends the girls off each morning to a free breakfast and programming at the Black Panthers’ community center. Delphine is initially resistant to the political indoctrination they receive, especially from Crazy Kelvin, the vocal Black Separatist with the gigantic afro, who immediately criticizes Fern for carrying around her white baby doll, Miss Patty Cake. But gradually Delphine begins to see that the women who run the camp are kind and caring, and the things she’s learning about political process and revolution come in handy when she decides to start standing up to Cecile. Rita Williams-Garcia’s fresh, funny novel resonates with depth and meaning that comes through the brilliant characterizations, sparkling dialogue, and a stunningly realistic recreation of a time and place in a story that concludes with a surprising, yet wholly satisfying resolution. She’s created a small masterpiece of a middle-grade novel that will have broad child appeal. (Ages 8–12)

CCBC Choices 2011 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2011. Used with permission.

From School Library Journal

Starred review from October 1, 2010

Gr 4-7-The tumultuous summer of 1968 is the setting for this splendid story (Amistad, 2010) by Rita Williams-Garcia. Delphine, almost 12, along with her sisters Vonetta and Fern, fly across the country to visit their mother, Cecile, who long ago abandoned the family to pursue her poetry. The girls ache for hugs and kisses but desperately try not to hope too much. Good thing. When they arrive at her green stucco house in poor, mostly-black Oakland, California, their mother constantly mutters "didn't want you to come." Cecile fobs the sisters off on the local Black Panther community center, and the girls spend their summer days eating cold eggs and learning that the Black Panthers are more about serving their community and protecting the rights of black citizens than shoot-outs with the police. While U.S. politics roil and boil in the background, Delphine seethes over her crazy mother. Their final confrontation is both poignant and satisfying as we come to understand Cecile. Sisi Aisha Johnson infuses each character with a distinct personality and the tone is upbeat and even humorous. She perfectly captures each character's voice, and her delivery is silky smooth and perfectly paced. Seeing the historic summer of '68 through the eyes of sensitive, intuitive Delphine is a treat. Featuring flawless writing and narration, this is storytelling at its finest. Sure to garner numerous awards.-Tricia Melgaard, Centennial Middle School, Broken Arrow, OK

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Horn Book

July 1, 2010
Eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters spend the summer of 1968 in Oakland visiting the mother who deserted them and getting an unexpected education in revolution from the Black Panthers. Williams-Garcia writes vividly about that turbulent summer through the intelligent, funny, blunt voice of Delphine, who observes outsiders and her own family with shrewdness and a keen perception.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From School Library Journal

Starred review from March 1, 2010
Gr 4-7-It is 1968, and three black sisters from Brooklyn have been put on a California-bound plane by their father to spend a month with their mother, a poet who ran off years before and is living in Oakland. It's the summer after Black Panther founder Huey Newton was jailed and member Bobby Hutton was gunned down trying to surrender to the Oakland police, and there are men in berets shouting "Black Power" on the news. Delphine, 11, remembers her mother, but after years of separation she's more apt to believe what her grandmother has said about her, that Cecile is a selfish, crazy woman who sleeps on the street. At least Cecile lives in a real house, but she reacts to her daughters' arrival without warmth or even curiosity. Instead, she sends the girls to eat breakfast at a center run by the Black Panther Party and tells them to stay out as long as they can so that she can work on her poetry. Over the course of the next four weeks, Delphine and her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, spend a lot of time learning about revolution and staying out of their mother's way. Emotionally challenging and beautifully written, this book immerses readers in a time and place and raises difficult questions of cultural and ethnic identity and personal responsibility. With memorable characters (all three girls have engaging, strong voices) and a powerful story, this is a book well worth reading and rereading."Teri Markson, Los Angeles Public Library"

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Horn Book

Starred review from March 1, 2010
It's the summer of 1968, and eleven-year-old Delphine reluctantly shepherds her two younger sisters on their trip from Brooklyn to Oakland, where the mother who deserted them now lives. Thoroughly coached by her grandmother about how little Negro girls should behave to avoid scenes, Delphine maintains her own sensibility about what is appropriate and makes sure her sisters toe the line. Their mother Cecile is far from welcoming, sending them each day to the People's Center run by the Black Panthers to keep them out of her way while she writes her poetry. At the center, the girls get free food and an education in revolution. Williams-Garcia writes about that turbulent summer through the intelligent, funny, blunt voice of Delphine, who observes outsiders and her own family with shrewdness and a keen perception of why they each behave the way they do. Never afraid to stand up to anyone or anything, Delphine copes with her equally strong-willed mother calmly, "because that's how you treat crazy people." She takes over when she has to, and during the course of their month-long visit she refines her understanding of her mother and herself. The setting and time period are as vividly realized as the characters, and readers will want to know more about Delphine and her sisters after they return to Brooklyn with their radical new ideas about the world.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From Booklist

Starred review from February 1, 2010
Grades 4-7 *Starred Review* Eleven-year-old Delphine has only a few fragmented memories of her mother, Cecile, a poet who wrote verses on walls and cereal boxes, played smoky jazz records, and abandoned the family in Brooklyn after giving birth to her third daughter. In the summer of 1968, Delphines father decides that seeing Cecile is something whose time had come, and Delphine boards a plane with her sisters to Ceciles home in Oakland. What they find there is far from their California dreams of Disneyland and movie stars. No one told yall to come out here, Cecile says. No one wants you out here making a mess, stopping my work. Like the rest of her life, Ceciles work is a mystery conducted behind the doors of the kitchen that she forbids her daughters to enter. For meals, Cecile sends the girls to a Chinese restaurant or to the local, Black Pantherrun community center, where Cecile is known as Sister Inzilla and where the girls begin to attend youth programs. Regimented, responsible, strong-willed Delphine narrates in an unforgettable voice, but each of the sisters emerges as a distinct, memorable character, whose hard-won, tenuous connections with their mother build to an aching, triumphant conclusion. Set during a pivotal moment in African American history, this vibrant novel shows the subtle ways that political movements affect personal lives; but just as memorable is the finely drawn, universal story of children reclaiming a reluctant parents love.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)

From Publisher's Weekly

January 4, 2010
Williams-Garcia (Jumped
) evokes the close-knit bond between three sisters, and the fervor and tumultuousness of the late 1960s, in this period novel featuring an outspoken 11-year-old from Brooklyn, N.Y. Through lively first-person narrative,readers meet Delphine, whose father sends her and her two younger sisters to Oakland, Calif., to visit their estranged mother, Cecile. When Cecile picks them up at the airport, she is as unconventional as Delphine remembers (“There was something uncommon about Cecile. Eyes glommed onto her. Tall, dark brown woman in man's pants whose face was half hidden by a scarf, hat, and big dark shades. She was like a colored movie star”). Instead of taking her children to Disneyland as they had hoped, Cecile shoos them off to the neighborhood People's Center, run by members of the Black Panthers. Delphine doesn't buy into all of the group's ideas, but she does come to understand her mother a little better over the summer. Delphine's growing awareness of injustice on a personal and universal level is smoothly woven into the story in poetic language that will stimulate and move readers. Ages 9–12.

From AudioFile Magazine

In the summer of 1968, 11-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters are sent from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to visit their mother, who abandoned them seven years earlier. What they find is not what they expected--their mother doesn't want them and sends them off each morning to a local Black Panther-run summer camp, where they encounter simmering racial tensions. SiSi Johnson's sensitive portrayal of Delphine, mature beyond her years, is pitch-perfect. With deliberate pacing and restrained tonal variations, the other characters are also thoughtfully delineated. Johnson's delivery places the spotlight on Delphine's unfolding understanding of her mother as well as her discovery of her place in the African-American community. S.G. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine