"One Crazy Summer" by Rita Williams-Garcia, List 5

In the summer of 1968, three sisters travel to California to visit their estranged mother. While there, they learn about the fight for equality and civil rights.

This list covers "Everyone Knows the King of the Sea"–"Counting and Skimming."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5, List 6, List 7, List 8, List 9, List 10

Here are links to our lists for other other books by Rita Williams-Garcia: P.S. Be Eleven, Gone Crazy in Alabama, Clayton Byrd Goes Underground
29 words 103 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. prospect
    belief about the future
    All the kids went wild at the prospect of running around in the park for an hour, but Fern and I didn’t feel like running with them.
  2. corral
    collect or gather
    The one about the dolphin that saves everyone’s lives and corrals the bad guys until the sheriff arrives.
  3. unforgettable
    impossible to dismiss from the mind
    I’d made sure it was as unforgettable a beating as I could give him so it would bum in the minds of all the other Flipper singers and whistlers.
  4. manage
    handle effectively
    This was a dictionary so huge you needed both hands to manage turning the pages and making the book stay put.
  5. phase
    the particular appearance of a body's state of illumination
    I'd turned to the back section, turned past the Z words, past the phases of the moon and the metric system, and finally to the Given Names.
  6. metric system
    a decimal system of weights and measures based on the meter
    I'd turned to the back section, turned past the Z words, past the phases of the moon and the metric system, and finally to the Given Names.
  7. mammal
    a warm-blooded vertebrate having the skin covered with hair
    A big fishy mammal with a wide grin.
  8. clutch
    hold firmly, usually with one's hands
    The next morning, Vonetta, Fern—clutching Miss Patty Cake—and I left the green stucco house and went to the Center, where we stood on line until the doors opened for breakfast because Cecile wouldn’t cook for us in her kitchen.
  9. local
    of or belonging to or characteristic of a particular area
    While we ate hot oatmeal and sliced bananas, a truck from a local store pulled up and dropped off loaves of bread and crates of orange juice.
  10. deliver
    bring to a destination
    The young white guys who delivered the bread and orange juice knew the Panthers.
  11. squat
    sit on one's heels
    Fern and I squatted down by our poster.
  12. thoroughly
    completely and absolutely
    I was still too mad at Vonetta to be thoroughly ashamed.
  13. disturb
    destroy the peace or tranquility of
    But it was too much Chatty Cathy for Cecile, who told Vonetta to stop disturbing the silence and that quiet was a good thing.
  14. rouge
    makeup consisting of powder applied to the cheeks
    Vonetta had gone over Miss Patty Cake with the black Magic Marker, leaving pink lips and pink rouge circles peeking out on a once-white face.
  15. burst
    emerge suddenly
    Cecile burst into the room and pulled them apart.
  16. seep
    pass gradually or leak or as if through small openings
    The Magic Marker ink seeped down into Miss Patty Cake’s soft plastic skin.
  17. separate
    force, take, or pull apart
    The best that I could do was keep Vonetta and Fern separated.
  18. defiant
    boldly resisting authority or an opposing force
    Still, Vonetta remained proudly defiant, walking two steps ahead of us and then leaving us altogether once her new friends, the Anktons, were in sight.
  19. migrant
    habitually moving from place to place
    After we ate our fill, Sister Mukumbu gave us a lesson on the California grapes that we had just eaten and how the migrant workers who picked them had to fight for their rights.
  20. snug
    fitting closely but comfortably
    A lot of good Island of the Blue Dolphins did me snug inside my pillowcase.
  21. service
    an act of help or assistance
    She made it sound like we were doing a great service by helping the newspaper carriers become more “organized and accountable.”
  22. carrier
    a boy who delivers newspapers
    She made it sound like we were doing a great service by helping the newspaper carriers become more “organized and accountable.”
  23. organized
    methodical and efficient in arrangement or function
    She made it sound like we were doing a great service by helping the newspaper carriers become more “organized and accountable.”
  24. knack
    a special way of doing something
    She didn’t have the knack for counting.
  25. article
    nonfictional prose forming a part of a publication
    I flipped open a newspaper quickly, skimmed the article in five-second glances at a time, then flipped it closed.
  26. protest
    express opposition through action or words
    There was also a photograph of people protesting that I wanted to get a better look at.
  27. essay
    an analytic or interpretive literary composition
    Wouldn’t that make a fine classroom essay: “My Revolutionary Summer”?
  28. uneven
    not uniform, as in shape or texture
    Too busy to notice my neat stack had grown into uneven bundles with either more than fifty or less than fifty newspapers.
  29. discount
    an amount or percentage deducted
    You’re entitled to the worker’s discount.
Created on Fri Mar 01 18:48:54 EST 2013 (updated Thu Feb 28 09:02:54 EST 2019)

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