One Crazy Summer

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-book review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Which event shakes Delphine’s sense of safety at The People’s Center?

A) Her mother’s arrest

B) Mean Lady Ming’s racial discrimination

C) Bobby Hutton’s assassination

D) Fern’s exposing Crazy Kelvin

2. Why do Delphine and her sisters think their mother is a secret agent when they first arrive in Oakland?

A) Cecile makes Communist rally posters on her printing press.

B) Cecile dresses in long dark clothes and wears a big hat and glasses.

C) Cecile hides Black Panthers in her kitchen.

D) Cecile left the girls six years ago without saying goodbye.

3. Why does Fern cling to her white doll, Miss Patty Cake?

A) The doll represents Fern’s immaturity.

B) The doll doubles as a piggy bank.

C) The doll is the last thing her mother gave her.

D) The doll has a hidden camera inside.

4. Why do the girls pretend to be the Clark sisters when Cecile gets arrested?

A) They don’t want to get arrested with her.

B) They don’t want to be sent back to Brooklyn.

C) They don’t want to go live at Hirohito’s house.

D) They don’t want to be put into foster care.

5. What is the significance of Cecile/Nzila’s poem “Movable Type”?

A) It has two meanings: one is a secret code, and the other is about moving all the time.

B) It has two meanings: one is that she’s a courier, or messenger, and the other is about her favorite font.

C) It has two meanings: one is that she moves all types of places, and the other is that she lets the wind move her.

D) It has two meanings: one is a reference to her work on the printing press, and the other is that she moves a lot from place to place.

6. Why is Crazy Kelvin so mean to the children?

A) Since he is an informant, Kelvin is doing everything he can to keep people from ever suspecting he’s really a spy.

B) Since he had a rough childhood, he takes his feelings out on the children at the center.

C) Since he owns The People’s Center, he feels he can treat people any way he wants.

D) Since he has mental health issues, he can’t help how he treats others.

7. Why do the children at The People's Center tease Fern about her Miss Patty Cake doll?

A) To them, Fern is immature and easy to pick on.

B) To them, the doll represents white beauty ideals, so Fern seems ridiculous.

C) To them, Fern is mean and whiny, so the other children retaliate.

D) To them, the doll looks like a spy camera, so they pick on Fern to keep her away.

8. Which words below best describe Delphine?

A) Studious and protective

B) Straight-laced and curious

C) Strict and funny

D) Bold and angry

9. Why do the Gaither sisters decide to perform Nzila’s poem “I Birthed a Nation” at the rally?

A) The poem is about mothers and daughters, and they miss their mom.

B. The poem reminds them of “Dry Your Eyes,” a soothing song they imagine is about a mother who had to leave her daughters.

C) All of the above

D) None of the above

10. What does Cecile mean when she admonishes Delphine to not be “so quick to pull the plow”? (Chapter 16)

A) Cecile resents Delphine for being better at being a mother than she ever could be.

B) Cecile is worried that Delphine will turn into an actual mule from working so hard and so much.

C) Cecile is writing a poem and figuratively refers to Delphine’s work ethic as mulish.

D) Cecile wants Delphine to work less and be more child-like, while she can, before becoming an actual adult.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. How does Delphine’s view of citizenship change over the course of the novel?

2. In the end, Delphine says she and her sisters traveled to Oakland to get a hug from their mother. What else did they gain from their summer in Oakland?