FOCAL Award Luncheon, Honoring ONE CRAZY SUMMER by Rita Williams Garcia

Luncheon table centerpiece for One Crazy Summer, depicting the palm tree next to Cecile's house in Oakland, her poetry, a replica of Delphine's Timex watch, a Chinese take-out box, and Miss Patty Cake, all arranged in the top of a suitcase.

Last Saturday, December 7, 2013, was the thirty-third annual celebration of the FOCAL Award of the Friends of Children and Literature, the support group of the children’s department at the Los Angeles Public Library.  The award this year was given to Rita Williams Garcia for her book One Crazy Summer.  It was a gala event, held at the Border Grill in downtown Los Angeles (across the street from the library), with great food, an inspiring talk by Rita, wonderful essays read by the student essay contest winners and the presentation of the puppet created by Carol Onofrio.  A revolving slide show created by Mara Alpert from the library reminded us of the winning books and their companion puppets from the past.  

Rita Williams Garcia

One Crazy Summer is a great book, Anita is an engaging speaker, the centerpieces, created by students of Ray Moszkowicz at Palms Middle School, and Carol Onofrio’s puppets were amazing as always, and the kids' winning essays were terrific. The contest winners sat at the head table with Rita and I loved how Rita interacted with them. They were truly thrilled to meet her.

Rita autographing a book and puppet

I thank all the people who helped make the luncheon possible–the FOCAL Board, headed by Caroline Gill; the essay judges, chaired by Sandy Schuckett; the awards committee, of which I was Chair; the library staff; and Ray Moszkowicz and his students at Palms Middle School. And above all I thank Rita Williams Garcia, who flew all the way to Los Angeles from her home in Queens, New York, for her gracious acceptance of the award.

For more about Rita’s book One Crazy Summer and this year’s FOCAL committee, see my posts for November 16, 2013 and July 10, 2013.

The FOCAL Award Committee: We Have a Winner!

Being on the FOCAL Award committee is a little like being in a book club.  We read lots of books, talk about them–often with great passion–and then have the difficult task of choosing which one we like best. This year the winner is One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, a book full of memorable characters and universal themes, with a window onto a period of history–the turbulent 1960's and Black Panther movement–seen through the eyes of three spunky girls sent from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, for the summer. We are delighted with our choice and looking forward to meeting Rita Williams-Garcia at the Award Luncheon on December 7th at the Border Grill, downtown Los Angeles, across from the Public Library. Please join us! (See below for link to details about the luncheon.)

This year’s FOCAL Award committee consisted of myself, past chair Nancy Reich, FOCAL President Caroline Gill, and members Marcia Melkonian, Lisa Schloss, Barbara Stone, Annette Goldsmith, Rachel Kitzmann and Alexandra Stewart--representing school, public and university libraries, classroom teachers, and writers. Each year the committee is given the task of choosing from a list of nominees (this year there were eleven), that includes both fiction and nonfiction ranging from picture books to novels. It is not an easy job, as every book we review has elements that recommend it. To qualify, the book must exhibit high standards of excellence in literature for young people, literary and/or artistic merit, interest and readability, universality, and California enrichment content. One Crazy Summer certainly did.

One Crazy Summer is beautifully written. We care for eleven-year old Delphine, in charge of her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern. The committee felt that readers will identify with them as they adjust to life in a new place and to a mother they are meeting for the first time. The story is fiction, but the setting is real--from the People’s Center next to the library, to the park where the rally takes place at the end of the book. We felt that the book is a good introduction for kids to learn what it was like to live as a Black American in the 1960's. Most importantly, though, the  book is simply a good story–a page turner.

Essay contest: Part of the FOCAL Award is an essay contest for kids about why they would like to meet the author. We think that readers of One Crazy Summer will find plenty to write about! Winners are invited to the luncheon and sit with the author. We hope to see you there too!

See www.focalonline.org for details about the luncheon and essay contest.

WRITING CONTEST FOR KIDS at LAPL, Los Angeles, CA

If you are a teacher or librarian in the Los Angeles area, here is a terrific opportunity for the kids at your school or library:

Calling all writers in grades 5-8 who have ever had a crazy summer! FOCAL, the friends group of the Children’s Literature Department of LAPL Central Library, is sponsoring their annual writing contest. This year students are reading the book One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams-Garcia and traveling back in time to the summer of 1968 in Oakland. This exciting, emotional work of historical fiction (winner of the Newbery honor, Coretta Scott King Author Award, Scott O’Dell Historical Fiction Award and the FOCAL award) is the story of three sisters, sent from Brooklyn to spend the summer getting to know their mother in California. The girls have dreams of Disneyland which are immediately replaced by summer camp with the Black Panthers. This is indeed a crazy summer!

The writing contest is an opportunity for students to respond to award winning literature for an authentic reason; winning a contest! Standards will be met! History will come alive! Students will have fun while they learn! And, three lucky winners will have lunch with the author, get an autographed book, and read their essay aloud at our annual awards luncheon. Will you be submitting the best three essays from your class by November 2, 2013?

For all the details, go to www.focalonline.org and download the guidelines and application,

ONE CRAZY SUMMER by Rita Williams-Garcia, Winner of the FOCAL Award 2013

I am pleased to announce that Rita Williams-Garcia wonderful book, One Crazy Summer, has been chosen to receive the FOCAL Award this year. (FOCAL, Friends of Children and Literature, is the support group for the children’s department at the Los Angeles Public Library.) This was my third year on the FOCAL award committee and I had the role of chair.  Books that are considered for this award must have a California connection, and I must say I always learn more about my state after reading the books each year. This book gave me a new perspective on Oakland–a part-time home for me.
I had the pleasure of meeting Rita Williams-Garcia two years ago at the Judy Lopez Book Award dinner, when she received another of her many honors for this book. I look forward to meeting Rita Williams-Garcia again! The award will be presented at the annual FOCAL Award Luncheon held at the Border Grill in downtown Los Angeles (across from the public library) on December 7, 2013. 
The luncheon will also honor the winners of the writing contest, children grades 3-8, who have read One Crazy Summer and written essays about it.  Information about the contest will be on the FOCAL website soon.  For a list of all the books that have won the FOCAL award, click here.
Teri Markson, who has previously been on the award committee, wrote an excellent  review of the book for School Library Journal.  Here it is:
School Library Journal (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

Judy Lopez Book Awards (WNBA)

On June 12th, I had the pleasure of attending the Judy Lopez Award dinner, celebrating Kate Klise, winner for her book Grounded, and honor book recipients Rita Williams-Garcia (One Crazy Summer), Matthew Kirby (The Clockwork Three), Lewis Buzbee (The Haunting of Charles Dickens), and Jewell Parker (Ninth Ward). Both Kate Klise and Rita Williams-Garcia were there in person to accept their awards. In her very entertaining acceptance speech, Kate Klise told how a middle-school reader had described her book saying that “it was about death, but funny too” and then used that as a tag line in her speech for her view of life in general.  She told how, as a child, she dearly wanted to look like Farrah Fawcett but ended up, when her father took her to the local barber, with a haircut more like that of one of the Beatles.  Now, with gorgeous long blonde hair, she definitely looks much more like Farrah Fawcett!  I was lucky to sit at the same table as Rita Williams-Garcia and learned that her daughters may have helped inspire the characters in her book.  For those of us who lived through the sixties, her book, One Crazy Summer, about the Black Panther breakfast program in Oakland, brought back memories of items seen on the news, but now viewed through the eyes of children.  It is no wonder that the book has received so many awards!
The Judy Lopez Awards are given by the Women’s National Book Association/Los Angeles Chapter.  They are granted annually to works of literary excellence for nine- to twelve-year-olds.