Delphine- She is caring, responsible, and the narrator of the story.  

Vonetta-  outgoing and loves to perform 

Fern- outspoken and a poet

Cecile- A poet who abandons her daughters (Dephine, Vonetta, and Fern) and moves to California.  She writes poetry and supports the Black Panthers.

 Setting:
The novel takes place in the summer of 1968 in Oakland California. 
Summary: Dephine, Vonetta, and Fern are sent by their father from New York to visit their mother in California.  The girls anticipate a time full of fun, going to Disneyland, and spending quality time with their mother.  However, once arriving in California the opposite happens.  The girls quickly learn that they are forbidden to go into their mother’s kitchen forcing them to eat Chinese takeout every night.  They encounter strange people visiting their mother and eat breakfast at a Black Panther center called the People’s Center.  Here they attend a day camp.  At the People’s Center, they meet other characters and learn that not everything the Black Panthers do is negative.  One day the girls come home and discover their mother has been arrested for writing poetry. Eventually, they discover that their mother has been released from jail while they are performing during a rally.  The girls leave their experience in California forever changed and make steps towards having peace with their mother.  

Rita Williams-Garcia's page on Rutger's University website
comminfo.rutgers.edu/professional-development/childlit/williamsgarcia.html

 Garcia shared her one of her inspirations for writing One Crazy Summer below.
"I wrote ONE CRAZY SUMMER because I grew up in the same period that the story takes place.  My memories are still vivid and I kept a diary from the late sixties, which I still have.  Children were a big part of the Black Panther Movement.  At that time there were no books about the roles children played in the movement so I thought I should write a story that focused on children.  I was also in awe of the women in the movement, like Angela Davis, Elaine Brown, Kathleen Cleaver and many more.  They were strong and intelligent women who fought racism and sexism mainly through their words."