The Watsons Go To Birmingham - 1963

The Watsons Go To Birmingham - 1963 - Christopher Paul Curtis
Newbery Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Award Winner
Yearling, an imprint of Random House Children's Books
ISBN: 0-440-41412-1

My rating: 3.5 out of 5

For the most part, I liked "The Watsons Go To Birmingham - 1963." I can remember reading this for the first time in grade school and enjoying it. The characters are very well-written and realistic. I find the interactions between the two brothers, Kenny and Byron, especially entertaining because at times they seem to mirror situations between my younger brother and myself growing up.

However, there were a few things I did not like about this book. I disliked that the reader must get through over half the book to even discover that the family is going to make a trip to Alabama. One confusing aspect was the symbol of death, similiar to the Grim Reaper, that Kenny creates in his mind. He describes it in a very real way to the point where the reader is not sure if it is physically there or not. I, as an adult, had a difficult time determining just what was going on, and I feel that such a concept will be a bit too complex for some children.

Nonetheless, "The Watsons Go To Birmingham - 1963" is a good book and would be a good book to incorporate in a lesson when studying the civil rights movement and Southern violence in the 1960s.