The Watsons Go to Birmingham

The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963, by Christopher Paul Curtis is a novel that takes place in the middle of the Civil Rights movement, in 1963. This is a story about a family from Flint, Michigan who has been having a rough winter. The main character Kenny’s older brother Byron has been getting into trouble. He isn’t listening to his mom, and she is at her wits end with him. Throughout the story we hear about Momma growing up in Alabama, and so when her and Dad decided that there was nothing more they could do, they pack up and take a trip to see Kenny’s grandmother. However, while they are in Alabama, something horrible happens. While at church, someone threw a bomb into the Sunday school classroom, and it ended up killing four little girls. Luckily, Joetta (Kenny’s little sister) was not one of them. However, this changed the family, and their outlooks on life. In Flint, they had not experienced this kind of hatred. This novel shows how one event can change your life.

I really liked this book. I found myself laughing out loud while reading it. This is one of the aspects that made it a quality piece of diverse literature for me. Even though there were humerous parts, there were also very serious parts and they intertwined beautifully and made a seamless story. Apparently the critics thought so as well because it won a Newbery honor award and the Coretta Scott King award. I think this is a quality piece of diverse literature because it highlights a true event that I had never heard of before. The climax of the story is when a bomb is thrown into a Sunday school classroom and kills four innocent children. Usually when we think of the Civil Rights movement we think of Rosa Parks and the bus boycott, or the Dr. Martin Luther King, “I Have a Dream” speech. It’s little events like this church bombing that affected more people than we know, and it has historically been dropped from teaching, if it ever was taught. I liked that Curtis included an Epilogue that gave a little history on the time period in Birmingham so that children that read this have a context for the story. The epilogue ends “And one of them could be you” talking about people who will change the world. I think that it ends the novel on an optimistic note.

One thing that the book does however is stereotype the “typical black thug”. Kenny’s brother Byron was always getting into trouble, whether it be at school, or out of school, it always seems as if Byron is getting into a scuffle. However, on the other spectrum of that, Kenny’s character is a positive role model for young students. He is ahead in his class in academics, is a great reader and is enthusiastic about school. I thought that this was a good counter balance for the characters in the books. This way Curtis is representing a few different character types into the story. The balance of these characters enhances it’s appeal and the audience that it reaches.

Book Info: Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963. Scholastic Inc, 1995.
ISBN: 0-590-69014-0