Gone Crazy in Alabama by Rita Williams-Garcia

Gone Crazy in Alabama

by Rita Williams-Garcia

  

Image Credit: Gone Crazy in Alabama at https://www.harpercollins.com

1. Bibliography

Williams-Garcia, Rita.  Gone Crazy in Alabama. New York: Harper Collins, 2008. ISBN 9780062215895

2. Plot Summary

Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern Gaither are back! With Delphine in charge, the trio --- now 12, 10 and 8 years of age, respectively --- head to Alabama to spend the summer of 1969 with their grandmother (Big Ma) and great-grandmother (Ma Charles). Obviously, the Deep South is nothing like Brooklyn, New York. There are a slew of unexpected experiences, which keep Delphine constantly on her toes since she has to deal with Vonetta's and Fern's outspoken viewpoints and persnickety ways. It doesn't help that Ma Charles has an estranged relationship with her stepsister, even though Delphine discovers eye-popping information about the Gaither ancestry along the way. Yet all the Alabama craziness pales in comparison to when Vonetta suddenly disappears during a tornado. (Summary Credit: Gone Crazy in Alabama at kidsread.com)

3. Critical Analysis

            The story is told from the point of view of the eldest daughter in a family with three girls.  Delphine and her sisters have a love/hate relationship that Delphine describes as being the “enemy and big sister”.  She is responsible, mature and caring and takes care of her younger sisters.  Sisterly relationships play a major role.  Two of the principal characters are Ma Charles (the children’s grandmother) and her half-sister Miss Trotter.  Their relationship resembles that of the children in that they pretend to not care about each other but continually show interest.  Mother-daughter relationships are also explored.  Big Ma (the children’s great-grandmother) and Ma Charles consistently take opposite sides to a topic but band together for important decisions.

            The setting is the rural south in the late 1960s.  And, many references are made to things happening during this time period; including the moon landing, freedom riders, Creek freedmen, Black Power and the KKK.  The country setting includes outhouses, a chicken coop and milking cows.  The story is rich in cultural details, celebrates diversity, invites reflection and analysis.

            There are many cultural references in the story.  The children’s hair is described as a “thick, thick head”.  The Mrs (their stepmother) has an Afro and Grandmother uses Dixie Peach hair grease.  There are references to the color of their skin, “three colored girls and Delphine describes a boy as being Hershey Brown and clay red.  There are references to music “catting and scatting”, “old man river”, Jackson Five, Stevie Wonder, doo-wop and grandmother’s tambourine.  Food references include fried chicken, pecans, shoofly pie, ham, biscuits and butter beans.  The girl's economic situation is referenced by the ride in a Greyhound, their uncles turn to drugs, people being “long gone”.  The girl’s father warns them about being in the south.  His advice is “don’t go grinning at every white kid”, “if they call you names, keep your mouth shut”, “don’t ball up your fists” and “the south isn’t like Brooklyn”.

4. Review Experts

~Coretta Scott King Award winner

~ALA Notable Book

~School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

~Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year

~Washington Post Best Books of the Year

~Kirkus Review: Character development again astonishes, the distinctive personalities of the girls ringing true and the supporting cast adding great depth and texture. Indeed, the girls’ cousin JimmyTrotter is so fully realized it seems unfair to think of him as secondary. This well-crafted depiction of a close-knit community in rural Alabama works beautifully, with language that captures its humor, sorrow and resilience. Rich in all areas, Delphine and her sisters’ third outing will fully satisfy the many fans of their first two.

~Publishers Weekly: For their third outing, the irrepressible Gaither sisters of Brooklyn get on a Greyhound bus bound for Alabama. It's 1969, and Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are spending the summer with Big Ma, their father's mother, and a passel of other vividly drawn relatives. Delphine, now 12, again narrates (which must make Vonetta spitting mad). The bickering between these sisters is as annoying as it is authentic, and it mirrors a long-simmering feud between Ma Charles (Big Ma's mother) and her half-sister, Miss Trotter, who uses Vonetta to send spiteful messages back to Ma Charles. The back-and-forth allows Williams-Garcia to unspool the Gaithers' complex family history: as slaves, as blacks in the segregated south, and in relation to the Native Americans who once called the area home. As a plot device, an argument between two grannies can't quite match the events that drove One Crazy Summer and P.S. Be Eleven. But 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.

5. Connections

~Use in a literature section with other books by Rita Williams-Garcia include the prequels to this book:

            One Crazy Summer. ISBN 0060760907

            P.S. Be Eleven. ISBN 0061938645

            Clayton Byrd Goes Underground. ISBN 0062215930

            Jumped. ISBN 9780060760939

            Like Sisters on the Homefront. ISBN 9780140385618

~Use in a history unit about the late 1960s in America

~Use in a unit on Prejudice and Racism

            Woodson, Jacqueline Woodson.  Brown Girl Dreaming.  ISBN 0147515823

            Rhodes, Jewell Parker.  Ghost Boy. ISBN 9780316262286

Tonatiuh, Duncan.  Separate is Never Equal.  ISBN 1419710540

            Levine, Ellen. Illustrated by Kadir Nelson.  Henry’s Freedom Box. ISBN 043977733X