Crazy Lady

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Crazy Lady! is a children's book written by author Jane Leslie Conly. It was published in 1995 and was honored with a Newbery Honor (not to be confused with the Newbery Medal, which is awarded to the best children's book of the year).

The book takes place in the Tenley Heights section of Baltimore, Maryland in the early 1980s and is centered around young adolescent Vernon Dibbs, who serves as the protagonist and the narrator for the story which is written in first person point of view. The story is told as a flashback, as apparently several years have passed since the events throughout the story happened.

The story begins with Vernon, a teenager, in desperate need to pull his grades up or he will be left back in seventh grade. His family life is very hectic: his father, a widower, works the night shift at a factory and is functionally illiterate; his work schedule forces him to divide the chores and housework between his five children- his oldest daughter Steph, oldest son Tony, Vernon, and his younger siblings Ben and Sandra. Vernon spends most of his time hanging out with his friends Bobby, Chris, and Jerry, and they get their kicks by causing trouble in town and harassing Maxine Flooter, an alcoholic dubbed the "Crazy Lady" by everyone in the neighborhood. Maxine has a son, Ronald, who is mentally retarded and who the kids also pick on.

One day after getting his report card and learning just how dire his school grades are, Vernon ends up at the local grocery store where he gets into an altercation with the store's owner over the price of a five-pound bag of potatoes. After he leaves, he is confronted by another customer who had the same argument...Maxine.

The two get to talking, and Vernon lets slip about how much trouble he's having in school. Maxine decides to try to get Vernon help and enlists the help of her neighbor, a retired teacher named Miss Annie. She agrees to help Vernon pull up his English grade, but eventually insists that as payment Vernon help Maxine out around the house and with Ronald. While it isn't easy for him, as Maxine is usually drunk and sometimes ends up in jail as a result, Vernon begins spending more and more time around Maxine and Ronald and begins to form a friendship with the young man.

Eventually Vernon is all but ignoring his family, which isn't helping his already tense home situation. He finds himself up late at night several occasions talking with his father, who likes to come home and sit in the kitchen listening to oldies (which he claims help him think about the past), and those conversations help to form a bond between the two. (Later in the story, Vernon's father asks him to teach him how to read, which is an important moment in their relationship.)

After a few weeks, Vernon meets Ronald's teacher, who suggests to Maxine that Ronald sign up for the local Special Olympics. Vernon decides to head up the effort to send Ronald to the competition, getting the help of his friends in the process- especially Jerry, who has a retarded brother that he visits on the weekends and that he never tells anyone about.

Things start to come to a head when Vernon organizes a block party to help raise funds for Ronald. It ends when Maxine, drunk as usual, storms onto the block in a drunken rage and tells everyone off. Vernon's frustrations finally boil over after Maxine interrupts a Sunday Mass at the local church and begins telling all the people in the church exactly what she thinks about them- specifically telling Vernon that he didn't have "the brains God gave a stump." After that, he refuses to have anything to do with her, only going in and out of the house to check on Ronald.

The day of the Special Olympics arrives, and Ronald and Vernon win several ribbons as a team in walking races. They run into Ronald's teacher at the games, who offers them a ride home and reveals to Vernon something that Maxine apparently had been trying to tell him a few days prior- that Ronald was going to be moving to North Carolina to live with one of Maxine's family members who can better take care of him. Vernon is shaken horribly by the news and storms out of the car on the side of the road; he then confronts Maxine about what she's about to do, with her telling him that she tried to help him but that he was better off in North Carolina.

Finally the day comes for Ronald to leave, and everyone in the neighborhood comes to bid him farewell (except for Maxine, who can't bear to see her only child leave her). After everyone says their goodbyes, Ronald's new family drives away. The sight of Ronald leaving is too much for Vernon to handle, and he begins chasing after the car as fast as his legs can carry him. Unfortunately, not only can he not catch up to the car, he trips over a curb and is sent sprawling into a wall. As he lies on the hard ground, severely injured, his father comes over to him. The book ends with him saying to his middle son: "Vernon, I'm here."

[edit] Controversy

Crazy Lady! has been criticized for its use of profanities, and some schools have even pulled it from their curriculum. A recent court case in California upheld the use of the book in the classroom, but also left the option that a child could read another book as a substitute open.