Gone Crazy in Alabama Hardcover - 2015

From the rear cover

It's the summer of 1969, and Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are off to Alabama to visit Big Ma and her eighty-two-year-old mother, Ma Charles. Pa can't remind them enough that the South's not like Brooklyn, and that you can't get more southern than Alabama.

Across the field, through the pines, and over the creek is the Trotter home, where Ma Charles's half sister, Miss Trotter, lives. The two half sisters haven't spoken in years, each determined to hold on to her version of the truth. Dramatic Vonetta plays middleman to the two warring, elderly sisters, while Delphine struggles against her to bring the family together. As Delphine hears about family history that she never knew existed, she learns of a hurt that happened many years ago--which maybe can't be mended. But when a tragedy comes to the farm in Alabama, 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 stands on its own as a story that brilliantly reveals the history of an African-American family in all its richness and complexity, superbly written by master storyteller Rita Williams-Garcia.

Media reviews

Citations

• Booklist, 02/01/2015, Page 38
• BookPage, 05/01/2015, Page 0
• Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks, 05/01/2015, Page 471
• Horn Book Magazine, 03/01/2015, Page 112
• Kirkus Best Middle Grade Books, 11/15/2015, Page 89
• Kirkus Reviews, 02/01/2015, Page 0
• Publishers Weekly, 03/23/2015, Page 0
• PW Children's Starred Reviews, 12/02/2015, Page 80
• School Library Journal, 03/01/2015, Page 145
• Shelf Awareness, 04/24/2015, Page 0