AUGUST 2013: P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia - A great read for middle school girls!
"'Look-look!" she cried out. And then I saw it. We all saw what Vonetta could see from hundreds of feet away. A billboard of Jackie, Jermaine, Tito, Marlon, and Michael sporting big applejack caps over their even bigger Afros. We screamed. The letters on the billboard shouted at us: THE JACKSON FIVE AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN. And underneath those words: DECEMBER. The inside of the Wildcat became a cage of screaming and seat-jumping until we finally heard Pa shouting, "All right! All right back there!'" … "I screamed for Jackie, whose real name was Sigmund, and I screamed for Tito, who had the best eyebrows and always looked cool and tough. Vonetta screamed for Jermaine, who was kind of good looking, and she screamed for Marlon, who she claimed was the best dancer. The only Jackson Fern screamed for was Michael." Delphine pg. 74-75 P.S. Be Eleven
It may not have been Zayn, Louis, Niall, Harry & Liam or Kendall, James, Logan & Carlos, but the Jackson Five were to the teenage girls of the 1970's, what One Direction and Big Time Rush are to teenage girls now a days.
Delphine might seem like your typical sixth grader, screaming over the members of the newest boy band, however big changes were in the air. It was August of 1969 and she and her sisters, Vonetta & Fern, had just returned to Brooklyn after visiting their eccentric and estranged mother in Oakland, California (One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia). Everything had been different and exciting in Oakland and now back in Brooklyn, in their house on Herkimer Street, life started to have its ups and downs for Delphine and her sisters. Delphine was always expected to keep her sisters in line, but after the trip to Oakland Vonette and Fern felt they didn't have to listen to Delphine anymore … "power to the people". On top of that their Pa had a new girlfriend and she was a little too modern for their grandma, their uncle was just back from Vietnam and not the same silly Uncle D they remembered; plus the boys at school were still giving Delphine a hard time, her best friends weren't acting very much like friends should and she didn't know if she and her sisters would be able to save enough to see the Jackson Five in concert. Through all of this Delphine wrote letters to her mother voicing her concerns and feelings, and her mother always encouraged her to … "P.S. Be Eleven", even after Delphine had turned twelve. How will Delphine deal with all the ups and downs of being a sixth grader, on top of the big problems at home? Read P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garica and find out.
If Delphine would have known what books the boys in The Jackson Five liked to read, you can bet she would have read them too … did you know that Bridgit Mendler's favorite book is The Giver by Lois Lowry, or that Victoria Justice's favorite is Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan, or that Zayn Malik's favorites are the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling.
It may not have been Zayn, Louis, Niall, Harry & Liam or Kendall, James, Logan & Carlos, but the Jackson Five were to the teenage girls of the 1970's, what One Direction and Big Time Rush are to teenage girls now a days.
Delphine might seem like your typical sixth grader, screaming over the members of the newest boy band, however big changes were in the air. It was August of 1969 and she and her sisters, Vonetta & Fern, had just returned to Brooklyn after visiting their eccentric and estranged mother in Oakland, California (One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia). Everything had been different and exciting in Oakland and now back in Brooklyn, in their house on Herkimer Street, life started to have its ups and downs for Delphine and her sisters. Delphine was always expected to keep her sisters in line, but after the trip to Oakland Vonette and Fern felt they didn't have to listen to Delphine anymore … "power to the people". On top of that their Pa had a new girlfriend and she was a little too modern for their grandma, their uncle was just back from Vietnam and not the same silly Uncle D they remembered; plus the boys at school were still giving Delphine a hard time, her best friends weren't acting very much like friends should and she didn't know if she and her sisters would be able to save enough to see the Jackson Five in concert. Through all of this Delphine wrote letters to her mother voicing her concerns and feelings, and her mother always encouraged her to … "P.S. Be Eleven", even after Delphine had turned twelve. How will Delphine deal with all the ups and downs of being a sixth grader, on top of the big problems at home? Read P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garica and find out.
If Delphine would have known what books the boys in The Jackson Five liked to read, you can bet she would have read them too … did you know that Bridgit Mendler's favorite book is The Giver by Lois Lowry, or that Victoria Justice's favorite is Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan, or that Zayn Malik's favorites are the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling.