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P.S. Be Eleven
(Gaither Sisters #2)
by
In this exquisite sequel to the New York Times bestseller One Crazy Summer, the Gaither sisters return to Brooklyn and find that changes large and small have come to their home.
After spending the summer in Oakland with their mother and the Black Panthers, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern arrive home with a newfound streak of independence, and the sisters aren't the only ones wh ...more
After spending the summer in Oakland with their mother and the Black Panthers, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern arrive home with a newfound streak of independence, and the sisters aren't the only ones wh ...more
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Hardcover, 272 pages
Published
May 21st 2013
by Quill Tree Books
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Start your review of P.S. Be Eleven (Gaither Sisters, #2)

It's entirely possible that I love this continuation of the Gaither sisters' small saga even more than the first award winning smash of a novel, but that could just be proximity talking. Since I just finished this lovely sequel and am still hearing the Jackson Five in my head, smelling Big Ma's cooking, and seeing Mr. Miwila's sixth grade classroom, my deep love of Rita Williams-Garcia's lyrical, heartfelt writing is still fresh. But I can already tell that this is a book that will stick with me
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4.5 stars. The wonderful Gaither sisters are back! Delphine, Vonetta and Fern return home to Brooklyn. After their summer with Cecile, their mother, and the Black Panthers, the girls are different, and are more willing to speak up. Their grandmother is not too pleased, and continues to badmouth Cecile.
It's a new school year, and there are changes happening in their family. Their father introduces the girls to a woman and seems pretty serious about her. The girls discover the Jackson Five, and ar ...more
It's a new school year, and there are changes happening in their family. Their father introduces the girls to a woman and seems pretty serious about her. The girls discover the Jackson Five, and ar ...more

Truth be told, I didn't understand the Rita Williams-Garcia hype before reading P.S. Be Eleven. I'd read a couple of her books, notably 2011 Newbery Honoree One Crazy Summer, but wasn't convinced she belonged in the discussion with the top children's authors of her day. Her writing was never dull, chapter after chapter of engaging prose that hit the ear with the faint ring of poetry, but I wasn't sure it meshed as a cohesive piece of art with a worthwhile central message. After P.S. Be Eleven, I
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Reviewed on blog and below.
A huge fan of Rita Willliams-Garcia's One Crazy Summer, I was incredibly happy when it got a great deal of award-love and recognition. I mean, who could not be taken with those three sisters going off to spend the summer in California with the Black Panther mother they never knew? And who could not want to know what happened to them when they went home to Brooklyn?
Happily, we find out in the sequel, P.S. Be Eleven . Taking off immediately after the girls return fr ...more
A huge fan of Rita Willliams-Garcia's One Crazy Summer, I was incredibly happy when it got a great deal of award-love and recognition. I mean, who could not be taken with those three sisters going off to spend the summer in California with the Black Panther mother they never knew? And who could not want to know what happened to them when they went home to Brooklyn?
Happily, we find out in the sequel, P.S. Be Eleven . Taking off immediately after the girls return fr ...more

I see a number of four star reviews for this one, and I only just finished it, so haven't sat with it yet... but this was a five star book for me. I think it was stronger than one crazy summer in voice, depth of the characters, and sense of place. I loved the pacing, the quiet tone, and the utter believability of the kids' actions and voices. super impressed: this is by far my favorite of her books so far.
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I'm in love with the Gaither Siter really. I'm in love with their relationship, their personalities. Delphine, Vonetta and Fern, they stand out as a trio as well as individual. They felt so real that for a moment I thought I was one of them. I would have love to be.
They made me cry; even though I'm the easy cryer when it comes to adult fiction I do not cry when I read children/middle grade books. I can get teary yes; but I do not cry. This one: made.me.
I laughted, oh boy! So much laughter in suc ...more
They made me cry; even though I'm the easy cryer when it comes to adult fiction I do not cry when I read children/middle grade books. I can get teary yes; but I do not cry. This one: made.me.
I laughted, oh boy! So much laughter in suc ...more

Bedtime read-aloud. I can't say enough about these Gaither girls books. Such great characters, and such a clear sense of time and place. They remind me in many ways of the Ramona books, which were the emotional touchstones of my childhood. Delphine and her sisters feel real. They talk like real kids, and they feel real feelings, and real things happen to them, and Rita Williams-Garcia -- like Beverly Cleary -- trusts kid readers to get it. Like...with the Jackson 5 concert ticket storyline... sh
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As a kid, my brother would drop the needle on our Monkees' album and we would shout-sing, "Hey, Hey we're the monkees! We keep on monkeying around..." (not sure of the lyrics anymore since it was decades ago). I do remember my brother pretend throwing a football and me doing cartwheels (our version of dancing) before mom eventually hollered, " Uff-da! Turn that down! The house is shaking!" We were the "Heckle an Jeckle" in our family of seven just like Vonetta and Fern are in this story. I found
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For all of you who became fans of the Gaither sisters - Delphine, Vonetta and Fern - in One Crazy Summer, the girls are back. And for anyone who doesn't know the Gaither sisters - they are a delight to meet.
The girls have just returned to Herkimer Street in Brooklyn after spending the summer with the mother Cecile in Oakland, CA (see One Crazy Summer). Gone for one short summer, when they get back home things are definitely different. For one thing, their father is a changed man now that he has ...more
The girls have just returned to Herkimer Street in Brooklyn after spending the summer with the mother Cecile in Oakland, CA (see One Crazy Summer). Gone for one short summer, when they get back home things are definitely different. For one thing, their father is a changed man now that he has ...more

In the Newbery honor award winning One Crazy Summer, we learned of the Gaither girls and their struggle to understand the mother who abandoned them and headed to California for life dedicated to the black panther and civil rights movement. That was a five star read for me.
P.S. Be Eleven is the second book, and while not as strong as One Crazy Summer, it tugged at my heart. Told from the perspective of the oldest of the sisters, eleven year old Delphine is a stubborn, loving, spit-fire of a girl. ...more
P.S. Be Eleven is the second book, and while not as strong as One Crazy Summer, it tugged at my heart. Told from the perspective of the oldest of the sisters, eleven year old Delphine is a stubborn, loving, spit-fire of a girl. ...more

Wow, so different from One Crazy Summer. The first book included historical details that supported the story. I felt like this book did just the opposite, as if the story and characters were there as a backdrop, allowing her to place references of the period center stage. I admire the ability to create a sense of time and place, but in this case the story really was a "p.s." for me and not one that could stand on its own. One Crazy Summer was as near perfect as I could imagine, and I think it wa
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This book is the sequel to One Crazy Summer. It starts EXACTLY where the previous book ended. If you fell in love with the first book, I guarantee you will love this one. Delphine narrates this story and has many struggles dealing with the start of 6th grade, the return of her uncle Darnell from Vietnam, her grandmother leaving, a new stepmother and overall letting her sisters become more independent. Though letters between Delphine and her mother, Delphine learns more about herself and remember
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May 09, 2013
Sam Bloom
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2013,
childrens-historical-fiction
It took me a while to get into this, and I am pretty sure it was out of fear: I loved One Crazy Summer so much that I was afraid its sequel wouldn't live up to the original. And it doesn't, at least not quite; OCS had Delphine, Vonetta and Fern vs. Cecile (even though it wasn't really good vs. evil per se, the conflict between mother and daughters really moved the book) and I feel like PSBE suffered somewhat from the lack of Cecile. But PSBE is still an incredibly strong book, beautifully writte
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What a satisfying companion to One Crazy Summer! The Gaither girls return from Oakland very much changed only to find things changing on Herkermer Street in Brooklyn. Pa's got a lady friend, Big Mama still disapproves of the girls' visit to California, Delphine's friendships are changing and she's starting sixth grade. The audio was performed by one of my favorite narrators, Sisi Aisha Johnson, and she was spectacular as usual. While I was totally lost in the Brooklyn, 1968, I found myself wishi
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Sequel to ONE CRAZY SUMMER, but not nearly as good. Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are back home in Brooklyn and must face some big changes in their family. Parts of the story were delightful, like the girls' obsession with the Jackson Five. There were some abrupt incidents (SPOILER ALERT!) like Big Ma moving back to Alabama. There were also some incidents that did not make sense and made me a little angry. When a wonderful book like ONE CRAZY SUMMER comes along, I understand why the publisher want
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Sep 12, 2013
Wendy
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
MMM
Shelves:
2013-award-possibilities
I liked this even better than One Crazy Summer. The writing is so joyful and natural and real. I don't think it's a GREAT standalone--I think there's a lot about Cecile that would be confusing (and some of it was confusing because I don't remember everything about her very well)--but it is doable. I love this cover, too, even though it doesn't match the text; I think of it kind of as, this is how Delphine and Vonetta and Fern felt on the INside.
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This is the second book in Rita Williams-Garcia’s three book series about the Gaither sisters. The three sisters spent their summer visiting their mom in California where the girls got to experience a very different culture and it is a huge shock to them when they come home and find that everything has changed. The girls stay in touch with their mother through letters where she continously reminds Delphine, who is the oldest sister, to remember to act her age and shouldn’t worry about being in c
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Three young ladies growing up without the most significant person a young girl needs; her mother. Their mom is a member of the Blank Panther organization & she left them in the care of their father & his mother at a very young age. Delphine is the oldest and she's responsible for her two younger siblings, Vonetta & Fern. An Impossible task for a child at the age of eleven.
How do parents expect kids to keep other children in line? When they fail, they get punished. When is the child allowed to b ...more
How do parents expect kids to keep other children in line? When they fail, they get punished. When is the child allowed to b ...more

P.S. BE ELEVEN is a quick read. Quicker than ONE CRAZY SUMMER. Which is probably a good thing since I probably wouldn't have finished it this time around if it had been longer.
I say this because I found PS11 to be depressing. Despite the craziness of ONE CRAZY SUMMER there was an uplifting feel to the entire book. The girls' mother may have been an odd duck and rather unlikable, and she might have had a sad/tragic backstory, but there were other positives that balanced out the emotional tone.
In ...more
I say this because I found PS11 to be depressing. Despite the craziness of ONE CRAZY SUMMER there was an uplifting feel to the entire book. The girls' mother may have been an odd duck and rather unlikable, and she might have had a sad/tragic backstory, but there were other positives that balanced out the emotional tone.
In ...more

Ahhh, I'm really loving this series, and all the characters (the new ones included). Delphine's a charming, older sister and Vonetta and Fern are adorable chaos. Surely so.
Cecile's "roundabout, go through the park and stop for ice cream before she's get to the point with some hidden wisdom" letters crack me up. P.S be eleven, i.e stay in a child's place and don't try to grow up too fast. ...more
Cecile's "roundabout, go through the park and stop for ice cream before she's get to the point with some hidden wisdom" letters crack me up. P.S be eleven, i.e stay in a child's place and don't try to grow up too fast. ...more

Feb 20, 2017
Gulshan Naqvee
added it
Very aptly written but very mature main character!! Too good

Oh to be 11 years old again. It’s been a while since I’ve read middle grades fiction, but this book reminded me that there is so much more to YA lit then just the fantasy novels I tend to read. Delphine’s story reflects the bittersweetness of growing up, realizing that there is so much more to the world then you realized and learning how to deal with it. This is a must read for any middle school teacher.
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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Fiction | 2 | 3 | Apr 27, 2016 06:59AM | |
Coretta Scott Kin...: P.S. Be Eleven | 1 | 3 | Jul 19, 2015 03:25PM | |
Children's Lit Su...: Painter: Book Promotion | 2 | 5 | Jun 20, 2014 07:02PM |
"I was born in Queens, N.Y, on April 13, 1957. My mother, Miss Essie, named me 'NoMo' immediately after my birth. Although I was her last child, I took my time making my appearance. I like to believe I was dreaming up a good story and wouldn’t budge until I was finished. Even now, my daughters call me 'Pokey Mom', because I slow poke around when they want to go-go-go.
"I learned to read early, and ...more
"I learned to read early, and ...more
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Gaither Sisters
(3 books)
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“Dear Delphine,
When you are older I want you to find Chinua Achebe. I want you to read Things Fall Apart. Don't be hardheaded and try to read this book now. Don't be hardheaded, Delphine. You are the smart one, but you are not ready. You can read all its words. Even the African words. But you will not know what Achebe is saying. It is a bad thing to bite into a hard fruit with little teeth. You will say bad things about the fruit when the problem is your teeth.
I want you to read this book. I want you to know Things Fall Apart. Fourteen is a good age to find Chinua Achebe.
Nzila.
Your Mother.
P.S. For now you are eleven. Be eleven.”
—
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When you are older I want you to find Chinua Achebe. I want you to read Things Fall Apart. Don't be hardheaded and try to read this book now. Don't be hardheaded, Delphine. You are the smart one, but you are not ready. You can read all its words. Even the African words. But you will not know what Achebe is saying. It is a bad thing to bite into a hard fruit with little teeth. You will say bad things about the fruit when the problem is your teeth.
I want you to read this book. I want you to know Things Fall Apart. Fourteen is a good age to find Chinua Achebe.
Nzila.
Your Mother.
P.S. For now you are eleven. Be eleven.”
“Heckle and Jeckle again”
—
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