ALA Outstanding African-American Author 2011

Coretta Scott King Award

“One Crazy Summer,” by Rita Williams-Garcia, tells the story of 11-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters as they travel to Oakland, California to stay with their mother.

The book is the winner of the 2011 Coretta Scott King Award, given to African American authors and illustrator for outstanding inspirational and educational contributions. The CSK award is celebrating it's 40th Anniversary this month.

Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive in Oakland at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. It is 1968, the year of “Black Power” and Huey Newton. The girls’ mother, Cecile, 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.

This is a powerful story. Over the course of the next four weeks, Delphine and her younger sisters spend a lot of time learning about revolution and staying out of their mother's way. They are sent to a local 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.” (Booklist)

The Coretta Scott King Book Award grew out of a chance meeting at a 1969 American Library Association conference in New Jersey. Mabel McKissick and Glyndon Greer, two school librarians, were both were trying to get a poster of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Both women loved children's literature and were discussing the fact that African American authors and illustrators had not been distinguished with awards for their work.

John Carroll, the publisher at the poster booth, asked them why they didn't start an award to do so, and the Coretta Scott King Award was born. Now 40 years later the award is a distinguished and well-recognized prize that “promotes understanding and appreciation of the culture of all peoples and their contribution to the realization of the American dream of a pluralistic society.”

Rita Williams-Garcia will receive her award later this month at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Bryan Collier won the 2011 CSK Illustrator Award for his work in “Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave,” by Laban Carrick Hill. A list of the authors and illustrators who have received the award in previous years can be found at www.ala.org/csk.


Thanks to ALA and Booklist for their information and reviews. This article appeared in the Highland Community News on June 10, 2011 as "Library Corner" by John Grimm