![]() ![]() ![]() In One Crazy Summer, it is clear that Williams-Garcia was influenced both by living in California and her own African-American heritage. ![]() Rita Williams-Garcia allows her readers to get to know her characters and touches on topics that are often ignored or avoided in children’s literature, like children’s involvement with revolutionary political groups. Bottom: Reggie Forte and Little Bobby Hutton (Treasurer). Newton (Defense Minister), Sherman Forte, Bobby Seale (Chairman). Original six Black Panthers (November, 1966) Top left to right: Elbert “Big Man” Howard Huey P. Other notices that Williams-Garcia has received for her literature include the BOOKLIST’s Top 10 Black History Titles for Youth and ALA Best Books (Williams-Garcia, 2008). Williams-Garcia also has also written several other young-adult novels that deal with racism and young motherhood, among other things (Williams-Garcia 2008). In addition to her awards, the novel was also recognized as a 2010 National Book Award Finalist and as a Junior Library Guild Selection. One Crazy Summer has received wonderful recognition and has won a number of awards, including the 2011 Coretta Scott King Award, the 2011 Newberry Honor Book, the 2011 Scott O’Dell Prize in Historical Fiction, and the Texas Library Association Best Book for 2010. Currently, Rita Williams-Garcia publishes with HarperCollins and teaches at the Vermont College of the Arts. Her hobbies include listening to music, daydreaming, and looking at interesting works of art, along with writing (Williams-Garcia 2008). She states that she doesn’t base the characters in her novels on specific people, or even herself, just ideas of people that she’s known in the past and present. Besides being influenced by dance and the many places she has lived, people in general are her biggest influence (Pais 1996). Rita Williams-Garcia graduated with her Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Arts in 1980 (Pais 1996). By the age of fourteen, Rita Williams-Garcia had sold her first short story to Highlight magazine, and she sold another to Essence magazine during her studies at Hoftstra. She reminisces about always asking for a pencil and paper when her classmates would color pictures instead. As mentioned on her website, Williams-Garcia notes the first time she began writing dates back to Kindergarten (Williams-Garcia, 2013). The family traveled from New York to California and Georgia which gave Williams-Garcia much experience with living in different parts of the country. Because her father was in the military, the family moved quite often. Along with her brother and sister, she spent her younger years as a dancer. Rita Williams-Garcia was born on Apin Queens, New York. ![]()
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