Intro to THIS FABULOUS CENTURY!

What was the wikipedia of my day? Where did I learn that obscure but interesting history or pop-cultural information that I was so hungry for as a kid? Well, we had the World Book Encyclopedia, of course. My parents were middle class, college educated midwesterners - it was the law! But the World Book wasn't sexy... Don't get me wrong, I would use it for homework and sometimes just to find out about stuff, but it didn't have great pictures and it lacked narrative flow.

However, the Time Life Corporation was on the job! They took the journalistic style and photographic excellence from their magazines and built series of books. which they would send out in monthly installments. I don't remember my parents actually getting these books. They might have have been a little snobby about it. When I asked my mother why they didn't get any of the sets, she said, "We already had the World Book. It had everything in the world in it." Did it, Mom? DID IT???

I had friends whose parent's were less satisfied by the status quo, or perhaps more susceptible to a constant stream of advertisements. And I loved poring over their Time Life books. Even in my current library the World War Two series and the Enchanted World series still circulate.

I was intrigued, when I was looking in the 917s the last time I was shelving, to find This Fabulous Century. This series was published in 1970 - possibly with an eye towards the bicentennial. I don't know how successful it was, it doesn't have its own wikipedia page. But it is of interest to me because it would have been written when I was a little kid - just starting to be curious about America and what that means. The bicentennial had us all patriotism-crazy and this fed right into that vibe.

I don't remember reading reading this series, specifically, so I can't call this a reread, but I am reading this series with purpose. My plan is to read these books with an eye towards representation. I just finished ONE CRAZY SUMMER by Rita Williams-Garcia and there was a section where the three sisters ages 7-11 talk about how exciting it is to see a black face on television and how they kept track of every time Lieutenant Uhura spoke on STAR TREK. They were out of their minds with excitement about the show JULIA that was about to come out. I get this to a lesser degree because I remember never seeing fat people on tv or in movies, unless they were the butt of jokes. Even now, I get excited about a great unapologetic fat-girl role model.

Anyway, since this series was probably the most populist history resource outside of school, I have decided to read it looking for how people of color, women and the LGBTQIA+ community are presented, if at all. This is not to hate on Time Life or that fabulous century between 1870-1970, but rather to see how representation might influence the mindset of people my age and older. These books are 50 years old, I don't expect them to be held to the standards I would require of an overarching American history series today, but I would like to see what the actual numbers are.

Is the black experience reflected here at all? Are women anything other than an appendage to their men? Is the gay experience indeed fabulous enough for this series? One would hope, but I'm not betting the farm. I like to think that we are finally, as a society, discussing the fact that representation matters. As a white, middle-class little girl I didn't have the understanding to even look for female role models, much less POC or gay - so what was the impact on my perspective of history? Let us agree that it was not positive.

So here we go! This will be a look at the narrative sweep that I was presented with as a kid. I will touch on some of the interesting topics that come up, but with the understanding that it was the "agreed-upon" history for so long, and yet it leaves out a great many Americans' experience.

ONE CRAZY SUMMER by Rita Williams-Garcia

On the Betsy Tacy listserv people were asking for recommendations of books that were similar to the BT books and this one came up. At first it seems strange - how can this story of three little girls from Brooklyn who fly out to Oakland, California in the summer of 1968 and end up attending a summer camp organized by the Black Panthers tie to the story of some little girls in the midwest during a time when the most exciting thing to hit town is the first motor car?

And yet...I felt that similarity. The relationship between these sisters is perfectly rendered. As the middle of three girls, I felt these sisters down to my toes! The birth order stuff adds up. Delphine, the oldest, is responsible, bossy and smart. Fern, the baby, is lovable and precocious. And Vonetta, the middle child, is annoying and desperate for attention. 

To be clear, I am a middle child and I am used to the middle child being the BEST in fiction. Betsy Ray, of course, but Laura Ingalls and Jo March also (while not technically middles) were the second born. (I argue that Beth dies and Grace never had a personality so the dynamic is the same.) But in ONE CRAZY SUMMER, Vonetta is the worst. And yet I love her too!

The premise is terrific - three girls who were abandoned by their mother seven years ago are sent across the country to spend the summer with her. Of course this is going to be a beautiful story of reconnection, right?

Absolutely not! Their mother Cecile is selfish and uninterested in parenting. She actually tells them at one point - "I didn't send for you. Didn't want you in the first place. Should have gone to Mexico to get rid of you when I had the chance." WHAT?? These kids are 7, 9, and 11! Delphine, who doesn't understand the Mexico reference any better than they do, explains to her little sisters that Mexico is where rich people go to buy babies. 

Cecile is a poet who takes the girls' Disneyland money to buy food. She only feeds them shrimp lo mein and eggrolls from the local Chinese restaurant. She won't let them come into the kitchen because that is where she works. She refuses to say Fern's name and calls her "Little Girl". To be clear, she is awful. But her emotional void makes the interplay between the sisters stand out even more. And their relationship is beautiful.

The end up getting breakfast at a community center run by the Black Panthers. They spend their days there since Cecile has let them know in no uncertain terms that they are not to hang out at the house all day. There, they learn how to become part of the revolution. The Panthers are described as community organizers standing up for their rights. While conflicts with the police are mentioned in a couple of sections (one of which is heartbreakingly familiar in our current era) the book mostly focuses on the struggle for justice. 

I had never heard of Bobby Hutton before I read this. And I never knew that the Black Panther Party was created in response to police brutality in Oakland. This book focuses on the Free Breakfast for Children program and a rally to have the DeFremery Park renamed for Bobby Hutton - the youngest member of the Party who was shot 12 times while trying to surrender to police during a stand-off. When Delphine decides that it is too dangerous to continue going to the center, she tries to stand up to Cecile and it doesn't go well. Eventually something happens that changes the tone of their summer and ever so slightly changes their dynamic with their mother.

The one plot device that didn't have any traction for me is what those girls were doing out there in the first place. Their mother clearly didn't want them and their father and grandmother were excellent caregivers who kept an eye on what the girls were up to. To send them across the country with no real compelling purpose other than to propel the plot seemed to require a bigger suspension of disbelief than I could work up for this otherwise beautifully authentic story. 

The story is so compelling. On the surface it is classic fish-out-of-water, but there are so many issues touched on delicately that breathe extra life into the narrative. Delphine is 11, but looks older and is expected to act older. She ends up cooking the healthy meals her little sisters need. She is an excellent judge of character and can intuit how to speak to different kinds of grown ups to to get what she wants or needs. She is aware of the ways that many white people respond to her race first and her as an individual second, or not at all. 

In the end, some of Cecile's backstory is laid out and you begin to understand more what drives her, but her story is secondary to Delphine's journey. I know that I am making this sound like a book that is "good for you". I am sure that all the awards stickers on the paperback cover (Oh my gosh, those covers are magical!) already give that impression. But it is also warm, exciting and hilariously funny in parts. There's a reason for all those stickers!

This book is in my all time top 10 middle grade books and now I am off to go read the two sequels and anything else Ms Williams-Garcia has written!