Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
“Williams-Garcia's novel has the feeling of a saga, an American story of several generations, related effectively from Delphine's first-person point of view-and with help from some feisty elders.” Horn Book Magazine
Review
"A must-have conclusion to this beloved middle grade series." School Library Journal (starred review)
Review
“It's reward enough just to spend more time with this feisty, close-knit family, whose loyalty to and love for each other trump everything else." Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Review
"There are similarities here with Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming, which would make an excellent next step and consolation for readers wistful for the apparent end of the series. But if readers do have to say goodbye to the Gaither sisters and their crew, this is a warm and spirited valedictory." Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
About the Author
Rita Williams-Garcia's Newbery Honor-winning novel, One Crazy Summer, was a winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, a National Book Award finalist, the recipient of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, and a New York Times bestseller. The sequel, P.S. Be Eleven, was also a Coretta Scott King Award winner and an ALA Notable Children's Book for Middle Readers. She is also the author of six distinguished novels for young adults: Jumped, a National Book Award finalist; No Laughter Here, Every Time a Rainbow Dies (a Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book), and Fast Talk on a Slow Track (all ALA Best Books for Young Adults); Blue Tights; and Like Sisters on the Homefront, a Coretta Scott King Honor Book. Rita Williams-Garcia lives in Jamaica, New York, is on the faculty at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in the Writing for Children & Young Adults Program, and has two adult daughters, Stephanie and Michelle, and a son-in-law, Adam.