Gone Crazy in Alabama

By: Rita Williams-Garcia

Narrated by: Sisi A. Johnson

The Coretta Scott King Award–winning Gone Crazy in Alabama by Newbery Honor and New York Times bestselling author Rita Williams-Garcia tells the story of the Gaither sisters as they travel from the streets of Brooklyn to the rural South for the summer of a lifetime.

Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are off to Alabama to visit their grandmother Big Ma and her mother, Ma Charles. Across the way lives Ma Charles’s half sister, Miss Trotter. The two half sisters haven’t spoken in years. As Delphine hears about her family history, she uncovers the surprising truth that’s been keeping the sisters apart. But when tragedy strikes, Delphine discovers that the bonds of family run deeper than she ever knew possible.

Powerful and humorous, this companion to the award-winning One Crazy Summer and P.S. Be Eleven will be enjoyed by fans of the first two books, as well as by readers meeting these memorable sisters for the first time.

Readers who enjoy Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham and Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming will find much to love in this book. Rita Williams-Garcia's books about Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern can also be read alongside nonfiction explorations of American history such as Jason Reynolds's and Ibram X. Kendi's books.

Each humorous, unforgettable story in this trilogy follows the sisters as they grow up during one of the most tumultuous eras in recent American history, the 1960s. Read the adventures of eleven-year-old Delphine and her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, as they visit their kin all over the rapidly changing nation—and as they discover that the bonds of family, and their own strength, run deeper than they ever knew possible.

“The Gaither sisters are an irresistible trio. Williams-Garcia excels at conveying defining moments of American society from their point of view.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Coretta Scott King Award winner * ALA Notable Book * School Library Journal Best Book of the Year * Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year * ALA Booklist Editors’ Choice * Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year * Washington Post Best Books of the Year * The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books Blue Ribbon Book * Three starred reviews * CCBC Choice * New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing * Amazon Best Book of the Year

The Best!

This was the best of all of the books. I read it with my boys and we just can't get enough of Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern. I hope there are more books!

great read

my 11yr old loved it wouldn't stop until she finished it twice. Story lines funny and relatable.

The Narrator is Outstanding!

SiSi Aisha Johnson nailed every character's voice! My 9 year old and I ejoyed it!

Pleeeeease Don't Let This Be The Last!!!!

I've so enjoyed listening to Delphine as she grows up. Twelve here, going on a life-forced thirty, she faces new challenges with her sisters ('cause they're growing up too!), with society, with nature itself.
Down in Alabama, things are crazy! Their mother, who recently re-entered their lives, has taught them to be free and proud. She's a poetess who's as independent as they come, and she's taught the girls to be fearless, to speak their minds. And that's not something you do in Alabama. You don't raise your fist and say, "Black Power!" and "Power to the People!", not when men still ride the night wearing sheets and burning crosses.
The story is one of love and family, of sibling rivalry/despair/joy, of growing up in hard and fast times. There are echoes of the damage Vietnam is doing, of drugs, of having to say, "Yes, Sir" over and over and over to the town Sheriff who is probably Klan.
But there is also humor and friendship, of defining who you are, and of giving back to those that love, even if it means ironing Ma Charles' sheets in a sweltering summer.
I loved each of these three books because they touch on history, they touch on life, they touch on devotion. A stellar book with dazzling narration by Sisi A. Johnson who can do ANYone's voice, can convey ANY emotion.
What a pleasure!
(...just pleeeeze let there be another one...!)

great book about family!

this was a great book to listen to with the kids! the author made you feel like you were in the story!