Curtis, C.P. (1995). The Watsons go to Birmingham.NY: Delacorte.
Interest level 5th+
Summary
This Caldecott and Coretta Scott King Honor book is told by 9 year old Kenny, the middle child of an African American family living in Michigan. Kenny’s brother Byron is always in trouble. He doesn’t follow the rules, skips schools, bullies other kids, and plays with fire. The parents realize that the city of Flint is not the best environment for the boy. The family plans and saves up to travel the long trip to Grandma’s house in Birmingham, Alabama. They are sure that Grandma can get him on the straight and narrow path again. The children experience what living in the south during the 1960s was like. Readers can begin to understand the confusion of the children as they experience racism for the first time. This book is set in a specific time period and place in history when the south was in turmoil over civil rights and full of race related violence. The author does include one actual event in history (the explosion of a church where four African American girls lost their lives). Mr. Curtis uses dialect from the south where appropriate and expressions from the youth of the time. This story of one family’s trip to the south will help readers to connect with the emotion of this particular time in history.
Hallmark Movie based on the book as well.
Lesson plans or activities
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