One Crazy Summer (Gaither Sisters, #1)

by Rita Williams-Garcia

Three extra minutes in the tub and I’d be sorry. I stuck to the schedule.

I'm amazed at how responsible the narrator is. She knows literally down to the minute how much time she and the girls have to go through their nightly routine.

I’m used to doing what’s hard. Like three days’ worth of homework in one night to catch up from being out of school sick. Like forty-six push-ups in sixty seconds to win a bet with a boy. Like standing mean mouthed over Vonetta and Fern until they swallow a tablespoon each of hard pine cough syrup. But saying “please” without actually saying it to someone you don’t want to say “please” to in the first place tops the list of hard.

This darling is so grown up for her age...it is a shame. It seems like even though Big Ma is there with them, she still takes on the mother role for Vonetta and Fern.

“Didn’t ask no one to send you here, no way.”

Why would you have 3 kids if you weren't the "motherly type"? She seems to lack the mom gene, and yet she had 3 children.

That Cecile left because Pa wouldn’t let her pick out Fern’s name. But I saw and heard it with my own ears and eyes. She refused to call Fern by her name, and that made Big Ma right about Cecile.

WHAT?!?!?! So petty and horrible!

This time I wouldn’t kick Vonetta. Good old Vonetta. Prattville was where Papa and Big Ma were originally from.

Seems like the narrator is proud of her father and Big Ma.

My name was my own, and I couldn’t imagine that anyone else had it in all of Brooklyn.

I love that Delphine loves her name. My name is unique, too, but I didn't appreciate it until I was older.

Thank goodness you can’t see cherries in a chocolate bar. I’d have been a red-faced rose if not for my Hershey brown complexion.

Fern laughed and hummed her bus song—“I saw something”—and clapped her hands.

I really hope we find out what Fern saw!

It was a strange, wonderful feeling. To discover eyes upon you when you expected no one to notice you at all.

I went to reach out to Fern, but she bolted from the line, ran, and jumped on top of Cecile. Vonetta and I didn’t hesitate. We broke off from the line and ran over to hug our mother and let her hug us. How do you fly three thousand miles to meet the mother you hadn’t seen since you needed her milk, needed to be picked up, or were four going on five, and not throw your arms around her, whether she wanted you to or not? Neither Vonetta, Fern, nor I could answer that one. We weren’t about to leave Oakland without getting what we’d come for. It only took Fern to know we needed a hug from our mother.