RITA williams-garcia
About
Rita
•American young novelist
•Born in Queens, N.Y on April 13,
1957 (56)
•Grand figure in life: Mother
(perhaps because she frightened her, made her life and encouraged her to be
creative)
•Father was in the Army—family had
to move a lot
•Has a younger sister
•Learned to read at age 2 by
looking at billboards
-Figuring out the sounds
associated with letters
•College: Hofstra University
-Major:
Economics
-Why?:
Truly believed Blacks needed to have an active role in
the distribution of capital within their communities and planned
to be at the front of this movement.
•She recently served on the
National Book Award Committee for Young People’s Literature and is on faculty
at Vermont College MFA Writing for Children and Young People.
Awards:
Coretta Scott King Award for
Authors, Newberry Honor
Nominations:
Coretta Scott King Award for
Authors, National Book Award for Young People’s Literature
Recognitions:
Coretta Scott King Award Committee, PEN Norma Klein, American Library
Association, and Parents’ Choice, among others
Books
-One Crazy Summer (2010)
-Jumped (2009)
-No Laughter Here (2004)
-Every Time a Rainbow Dies (2001)
-Catching the Wild Waiyuuzee (2000)
-Like Sisters on the Homefront (1995)
-Fast Talk on a Slow Track (1991)
-Blue Tights (1987)
**Recognized most for One Crazy Summer**
Watch YouTube Video:
Other
Works and Short Stories
-“Mr.
Ruben”, FACE
RELATIONS, Marilyn Singer, ed. Scholastic, 2004.
-“Make
Maddie
Mad”,
FIRST CROSSINGS: Stories About Immigrant Teens, Donald R. Gallo, ed.,
Candlewick Press, 2004.
-“A
Woman’s Touch”, NECESSARY
NOISE, Michael Cart, ed., HarperCollins, 2003.
-“Making
Do”, PERIOD PIECES, STORIES FOR
GIRLS, Erszi Deak, ed., HarperCollins, 2002.
-“Clay”, SECOND SIGHT, STORIES FOR A
NEW MILLINEUM, Philomel, 1999.
-“Food
From the Outside”, WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE, VOL. II, Amy Erlich, ed., Candlewick Press, 1999.
-“Crazy
As a Daisy”, STAY
TRUE, STORIES FOR STRONG GIRLS, Marilyn Singer, ed., Scholastic, 1998.
-“About
Russell”, DIRTY
LAUNDRY, Lisa Rowe Fraustino, ed., Viking, 1998.
-“Cross
Over”,
TRAPPED, Lois Duncan, ed., Simon and Schuster, 1997
-“Wishing
it Away”, DILEMAS, Donald R. Gallo, ed., Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1996.
-“Chalkman”, TWELVE
SHOTS, Harry Mazer, ed., Simon and Schuster, 1996.
-“Into
the Game”,
JOIN IN, Donald R. Gallo, ed., Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1993.
Jumped
The wrong angle
Trina: "Hey," I say, though I don't really know them. The boyed-up basketball girl barely moves. The others, her girls, step aside. It's okay if they don't speak. I know how it is. They can't all be Trina. Dominique: Some stupid little flit cuts right in between us and is like, "Hey." Like she don't see I'm here and all the space around me is mines. I slam my fist into my other hand because she's good as jumped.
Leticia: Why would I get involved in Trina's life when I don't know for sure if I saw what I thought I saw? Who is to say I wasn't seeing it from the wrong angle? Acclaimed author Rita Williams-Garcia intertwines the lives of three very different teens in this fast-paced, gritty narrative about choices and the impact that even the most seemingly insignificant ones can have. Weaving in and out of the girls' perspectives, readers will find themselves not with one intimate portrayal but three.
Every Time a Rainbow Dies
Ever since he found her battered and raped in the alley near his home, Thulani hasn't been able to think about anything but Ysa. This is the first time since his mother died that he's given a thought to anything but the rock doves he keeps on the roof of his house in Brooklyn. Now that he has seen Ysa, Thulani finally has a reason to come down from the roof. But it's not so easy for him -- especially when it seems that Ysa doesn't want him in her world at all.
Catching the Wild Waiyuuzee
The Wild Waiyuuzee is hiding because Shemama wants to SPLASH her with water, RUB nut-nut oil on her head, and comb her with a piney pig's tail. And after all that happens, the Wild Waiyuuzee knows she won't be a Wild Waiyuuzee anymore.
Like Sisters on the Homefront
When Gayle gets into trouble with her boyfriend, her mother sends the street-smart 14-year-old?and her baby, Jose?down to Georgia, to live with Uncle Luther and his family. There?s nothing to do, nowhere to go, and no one around except kneesock-wearing, Jesus-praising cousin Cookie. Then Gayle meets Great, the family matriarch?and her stories of the past begin to change how Gayle sees her future. ?Williams-Garcia has surpassed herself.?She has set these fictional characters? firmly in the real world while still allowing them to rise from the pages and into readers? hearts and imaginations.? The Horn Book, starred review.
Fast Talk on a Slow Track
Denzel Watson is a fast talker with a system, and it's made him valedictorian. But when he goes to a summer program at Princeton, he takes a fall. How can he tell his proud family that he won't be able to cut it in the Ivy League? Instead, he spends the rest of the summer selling candy, up against "Top Man" Mello, a drop-out with a police record. For the first time, Denzel is forced to take a hard look at himself -- and how much further he could fall. "Williams-Garcia confronts some crucial issues that are generally ignored in YA fiction: issues of class and race, friendship and competition, identity and failure." -- Booklist "Teens everywhere will be able to identify and commiserate with Denzel." School Library Journal, starred review.
Blue Tights
Joyce Collins desperately wants to be accepted into the popular circle, and when she is cut from the ballet recital, she is devastated, until she joins an African dance troupe and quickly discovers a place where she truly feels she belongs. Reprint. H.
QUOTES/SAYINGS
“In the midst of real events, I daydreamed and wrote stories. Writing
stories for young people is my passion and my mission.”
—Rita Williams-Garcia
“Today we're going to be like the earth, spinning around and affecting
many.”
—Rita Williams-Garcia
“mixing comes natural. i just ought to. not am i mixed to perfection, i have aptitude for art and colors.”
–Rita Williams-Garcia
“We all have our la-la-la song. The thing we do when the world isn't
singing a nice tune to us. We sing our own nice tune to drown out ugly.”
–Rita Williams-Garcia, One
Crazy Summer
BOOK REFLECTIONS
One Crazy Summer
Eleven-year-old Delphine has it
together. Even though her mother, Cecile, abandoned her and her younger
sisters, Vonetta and Fern, seven years ago. Even though her father and Big Ma
will send them from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to stay with Cecile for
the summer. And even though Delphine will have to take care of her sisters, as
usual, and learn the truth about the missing pieces of the past. When the girls
arrive in Oakland in the summer of 1968, Cecile wants nothing to do with them.
She makes them eat Chinese takeout dinners, forbids them to enter her kitchen,
and never explains the strange visitors with Afros and black berets who knock
on her door. Rather than spend time with them, Cecile sends Delphine, Vonetta,
and Fern to a summer camp sponsored by a revolutionary group, the Black
Panthers, where the girls get a radical new education. Set during one of the
most tumultuous years in recent American history, one crazy summer is the
heartbreaking, funny tale of three girls in search of the mother who abandoned
them—an unforgettable story told by a distinguished author of books for children
and teens, Rita Williams-Garcia.
Jumped
The wrong angle
Trina: "Hey," I say, though I don't really know them. The boyed-up basketball girl barely moves. The others, her girls, step aside. It's okay if they don't speak. I know how it is. They can't all be Trina. Dominique: Some stupid little flit cuts right in between us and is like, "Hey." Like she don't see I'm here and all the space around me is mines. I slam my fist into my other hand because she's good as jumped.
Leticia: Why would I get involved in Trina's life when I don't know for sure if I saw what I thought I saw? Who is to say I wasn't seeing it from the wrong angle? Acclaimed author Rita Williams-Garcia intertwines the lives of three very different teens in this fast-paced, gritty narrative about choices and the impact that even the most seemingly insignificant ones can have. Weaving in and out of the girls' perspectives, readers will find themselves not with one intimate portrayal but three.
Every Time a Rainbow Dies
Ever since he found her battered and raped in the alley near his home, Thulani hasn't been able to think about anything but Ysa. This is the first time since his mother died that he's given a thought to anything but the rock doves he keeps on the roof of his house in Brooklyn. Now that he has seen Ysa, Thulani finally has a reason to come down from the roof. But it's not so easy for him -- especially when it seems that Ysa doesn't want him in her world at all.
Catching the Wild Waiyuuzee
The Wild Waiyuuzee is hiding because Shemama wants to SPLASH her with water, RUB nut-nut oil on her head, and comb her with a piney pig's tail. And after all that happens, the Wild Waiyuuzee knows she won't be a Wild Waiyuuzee anymore.
Like Sisters on the Homefront
When Gayle gets into trouble with her boyfriend, her mother sends the street-smart 14-year-old?and her baby, Jose?down to Georgia, to live with Uncle Luther and his family. There?s nothing to do, nowhere to go, and no one around except kneesock-wearing, Jesus-praising cousin Cookie. Then Gayle meets Great, the family matriarch?and her stories of the past begin to change how Gayle sees her future. ?Williams-Garcia has surpassed herself.?She has set these fictional characters? firmly in the real world while still allowing them to rise from the pages and into readers? hearts and imaginations.? The Horn Book, starred review.
Fast Talk on a Slow Track
Denzel Watson is a fast talker with a system, and it's made him valedictorian. But when he goes to a summer program at Princeton, he takes a fall. How can he tell his proud family that he won't be able to cut it in the Ivy League? Instead, he spends the rest of the summer selling candy, up against "Top Man" Mello, a drop-out with a police record. For the first time, Denzel is forced to take a hard look at himself -- and how much further he could fall. "Williams-Garcia confronts some crucial issues that are generally ignored in YA fiction: issues of class and race, friendship and competition, identity and failure." -- Booklist "Teens everywhere will be able to identify and commiserate with Denzel." School Library Journal, starred review.
Blue Tights
Joyce Collins desperately wants to be accepted into the popular circle, and when she is cut from the ballet recital, she is devastated, until she joins an African dance troupe and quickly discovers a place where she truly feels she belongs. Reprint. H.
**All
book summaries are from Amazon.com**
Resources
http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/professional-development/childlit/williamsgarcia.html --Rita Williams-Garcia biography
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