P.S. Be Eleven

Rita Williams-Garcia’s work has won numerous awards, including the Coretta Scott King Award for Children’s Fiction, an award that recognizes excellence in works of children’s literature that reflect the experiences of Black people. In the Gaither Sisters trilogy to which P.S. Be Eleven belongs, Williams-Garcia explores and critiques broader social issues through the perspective of three Black girls during the late 1960s. The first novel in the trilogy is One Crazy Summer (2011). P.S. Be Eleven is the second novel, and Gone Crazy in Alabama (2015) concludes the trilogy. Recognizing the relationship between One Crazy Summer and P.S. Be Eleven is key to understanding the values that shape how Delphine and her sisters see the world in P.S. Be Eleven.

In One Crazy Summer, Louis Gaither sends the Gaither sisters to Oakland, California, so that they can spend a summer with Cecile, the girls’ mother. Cecile has largely been absent from the girls’ lives. After living under Big Ma’s roof, where structure and respectability are the order of the day, the girls experience Cecilia’s minimal guidance as a combination of freedom and neglect. Cecile’s version of parenting is to allow her daughters to range freely through their Oakland neighborhood and spend their days learning about Black identity and Black Power in a summer camp.