91 pages 3 hours read

Rita Williams-Garcia

One Crazy Summer

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2010

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Chapters 5-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 5 Summary: “Mean Lady Ming”

After traveling for almost 10 hours, the three sisters are hungry. Delphine is shocked when Cecile tells them that they are on their own if they are hungry because there is nothing to eat in her house. Delphine tells Cecile that she needs to call Louis Gaither, the sisters’ father, to let him know that they have arrived safely. At Cecile’s insistence, Delphine hands over the money that Louis gave Delphine back in Brooklyn. Cecile keeps most of the money, but she gives enough back to Delphine for her to order takeout from the Chinese restaurant down the street.

As the girls head to the restaurant on their own, they are nearly sideswiped by a boy on a go-kart. They are unable to call their father because a man with a stringy Afro is on a long call in the phone booth. At the restaurant, they are served by the owner, dubbed “Mean Lady Ming” by the girls because of her severe manner. This terrible service convinces Delphine that she does not like Oakland.