When the eldest son of the family becomes a troublemaker, the Watsons travel to Grandma's Alabama home and witness the bombing of the Birmingham church, in a story told from the perspective of nine-year-old Kenny Watson. - (Baker & Taylor)
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963 - (Baker & Taylor)
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963. - (Baker & Taylor)
During one of the most important times in the civil rights movement, one unforgettable family goes on a road trip in this Newbery and Coretta Scott King Honoree, from author Christopher Paul Curtis, recipient of the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.
When the Watson family—ten-year-old Kenny, Momma, Dad, little sister Joetta, and brother Byron—sets out on a trip south to visit Grandma in Birmingham, Alabama, they don’t realize that they’re heading toward one of the darkest moments in America’s history. The Watsons’ journey reminds us that even in the hardest times, laughter and family can help us get through anything.
"A modern classic." —NPR
“Marvelous . . . both comic and deeply moving.” —The New York Times
"One of the best novels EVER." —Jacqueline Woodson, Newbery Honor and National Book Award–winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming - (Random House, Inc.)
Christopher Paul Curtis won the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award for his bestselling second novel, Bud, Not Buddy. His first novel, The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, was also singled out for many awards, and has been a bestseller in hardcover and paperback. His most recent novels for Random House include The Mighty Miss Malone, Mr. Chickee's Messy Mission, Mr. Chickee's Funny Money, and Bucking the Sarge.
Christopher Paul Curtis grew up in Flint, Michigan. After high school he began working on the assembly line at the Fisher Body Plant No. 1 while attending the Flint branch of the University of Michigan. He is now a full-time writer, and lives with his family in Windsor, Ontario. - (Random House, Inc.)
Horn Book Guide Reviews
A novel that begins as a lighthearted romp follows ten-year-old Kenny and the rest of the ""Weird Watsons"" of Flint, Michigan, as they travel South in 1963 and become witnesses of a tragic event of the civil-rights movement. Curtis has created a wholly original novel in this warmly memorable evocation of an African-American family and their experiences that are both terrible and transcendent. Copyright 1998 Horn Book Guide Reviews
Horn Book Magazine Reviews
This impressive first novel begins as a lighthearted, episodic family story narrated by ten-year-old Kenny Watson. Most of Kenny's problems revolve around his older brother Byron, at thirteen "officially a teenage juvenile delinquent." Although he makes life miserable for Kenny, Byron is constantly in trouble: lighting fires, cutting school, and having his hair straightened into a "conk" against the express wishes of his parents. These early chapters are hilarious, especially the one in which the narcissistic Byron gets his lips frozen to the side-view mirror of the family car while giving himself a kiss. But the tone changes after the Watson parents decide that they've had enough of Byron's "latest fantastic adventures" and drive the family from Flint, Michigan, down to Birmingham, Alabama, where they plan to have strict Grandma Sands shape Byron up. There Kenny has his first encounter with the darker elements lurking under the surface of life. Although he has been warned away from one particular swimming hole because of whirlpools, Kenny disobeys and almost drowns, pulled under by the "Wool Pooh" (Winnie-the-Pooh's evil twin, a Byron fabrication intended to scare Kenny away from the dangerous swimming hole). As the book moves further from the comic to the tragic, the Wool Pooh makes another devastating appearance, this time at the bombing of the Sixteenth Avenue Baptist Church, where four little girls are killed. Kenny sinks into a deep depression, and - not so unexpectedly - it is Byron who pulls him out, with reassurances that his "baby bruh" is going to be all right, and with ruminations on the unfairness of life: "Kenny, things ain't ever going to be fair. How's it fair that two grown men could hate Negroes so much that they'd kill some kids just to stop them from going to school? . . . But you just gotta understand that that's the way it is and keep on steppin'." Curtis's control of his material is superb as he unconventionally shifts tone and mood, as he depicts the changing relationship between the two brothers, and as he incorporates a factual event into his fictional story. His use of the "Wool Pooh" as the personification of evil is effective and chilling. Curtis has created a wholly original novel in this warmly memorable evocation of an African-American family and their experiences both terrible and transcendent. m.v.p. Copyright 1998 Horn Book Magazine Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
~ Curtis debuts with a ten-year-old's lively account of his teenaged brother's ups and downs. Ken tries to make brother Byron out to be a real juvenile delinquent, but he comes across as more of a comic figure: getting stuck to the car when he kisses his image in a frozen side mirror, terrorized by his mother when she catches him playing with matches in the bathroom, earning a shaved head by coming home with a conk. In between, he defends Ken from a bully and buries a bird he kills by accident. Nonetheless, his parents decide that only a long stay with tough Grandma Sands will turn him around, so they all motor from Michigan to Alabama, arriving in time to witness the infamous September bombing of a Sunday school. Ken is funny and intelligent, but he gives readers a clearer sense of Byron's character than his own and seems strangely unaffected by his isolation and harassment (for his odd look--he has a lazy eye--and high reading level) at school. Curtis tries to shoehorn in more characters and subplots than the story will comfortably bear--as do many first novelists--but he creates a well-knit family and a narrator with a distinct, believable voice. (Fiction. 10-12) Copyright 1999 Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly Reviews
A 1996 Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor book, this comic tale, narrated by a 10-year-old boy, describes an eccentric family's unwitting trip South to visit Grandma during one of the stormiest times of the Civil Rights movement. PW's boxed, starred review called it "an exceptional first novel." Ages 10-up. (Oct.) Copyright 1998 Publishers Weekly Reviews
School Library Journal Reviews
Gr 5-8-In the only Newbery Honor book to make my list, the weighty issues and historical perspectives don't get in the way of a very funny family. Byron plays some awful tricks on his younger brother Kenny, but readers can't help but laugh at some of his less harmful teasing. He tells a convincing story to little sister Joey about how garbage trucks scoop up frozen Southern folks who don't dress warmly enough, and half-fools Kenny with his tall tale. While the boys supply many of the laughs, it's clear that they get their sense of humor from their dad. His gentle teasing and tongue-in-cheek exaggerations can be hilarious. Laughter and Tears Award: More than any other book on my list, the humor in The Watsons shifts to near tragedy and many thought-provoking developments. The serious stuff succeeds in part because readers grow so close to this family through the humor that comes earlier in the book. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
School Library Journal Reviews
Gr 6 Up?Kenny's family is known in Flint, Michigan, as the Weird Watsons, for lots of good reasons. Younger sister Joetta has been led to believe she has to be overdressed in the winter because Southern folks (their mother is from Alabama) freeze solid and have to be picked up by the city garbage trucks. Kenny, the narrator, does well in school and tries to meet his hard-working parents' expectations. After a string of misdeeds, Mr. and Mrs. Watson decide that tough guy, older brother Byron must be removed from the bad influences of the city and his gang. They feel that his maternal grandmother and a different way of life in Birmingham might make him appreciate what he has. Since the story is set in 1963, the family must make careful preparations for their trip, for they cannot count on food or housing being available on the road once they cross into the South. The slow, sultry pace of life has a beneficial effect on all of the children until the fateful day when a local church is bombed, and Kenny runs to look for his sister. Written in a full-throated, hearty voice, this is a perfectly described piece of past imperfect. Curtis's ability to switch from fun and funky to pinpoint-accurate psychological imagery works unusually well. Although the horrific Birmingham Sunday throws Kenny into temporary withdrawl, this story is really about the strength of family love and endurance. Ribald humor, sly sibling digs, and a totally believable child's view of the world will make this book an instant hit.?Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY
