John Newbery Medal Winning and Honored Books
First awarded in 1922, The John Newbery Medal is awarded annually by the American Library Association for the most distinguished American children’s book published the previous year. Virginia Hamilton, in 1975, was the first African American writer to win the medal. Learn more about this award at the ALA Website.
Below are the Newbery Winning and Honored books which were written by, or about, people of African descent.
One Book Honored with The Newbery Medal or Honor in 2011
2011 – Newbery Honor
One Crazy Summer
by Rita Williams-Garcia
- A Top 150 Children’s Book
- 14 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Coretta Scott King Award Winning Book 2011
- Newbery Medal Winner or Honor 2011
Publication Date: Dec 27, 2011
List Price: $7.99
Format: Paperback, 218 pages
Classification: Fiction
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
ISBN13: 9780060760908
Imprint: Amistad
Publisher: HarperCollins
Parent Company: News Corp
Read a Description of One Crazy Summer
Eleven-year-old Delphine has it together. Even though her mother, Cecile, abandoned her and her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, seven years ago. Even though her father and Big Ma will send them from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to stay with Cecile for the summer. And even though Delphine will have to take care of her sisters, as usual, and learn the truth about the missing pieces of the past.
When the girls arrive in Oakland in the summer of 1968, Cecile wants nothing to do with them. She makes them eat Chinese takeout dinners, forbids them to enter her kitchen, and never explains the strange visitors with Afros and black berets who knock on her door. Rather than spend time with them, Cecile sends Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern to a summer camp sponsored by a revolutionary group, the Black Panthers, where the girls get a radical new education.
Set during one of the most tumultuous years in recent American history, one crazy summer is the heartbreaking, funny tale of three girls in search of the mother who abandoned them-an unforgettable story told by a distinguished author of books for children and teens, Rita Williams-Garcia.