Title: The Watsons Go to Birmingham–1963
Author: Christopher Paul Curtis
Major Themes: Michigan, Alabama, Civil Rights Movement, Travel
Synopsis: Life in Flint, Michigan included trouble and humor—but what really brought the Watson family together was a road trip to Birmingham, arriving just in time for the worst event of the year in the Black community there.
My mom, daughter, and I are all doing a two-month reading challenge together, and one of the prompts was “an event that your parents lived through.” I hadn’t found a book for that prompt yet, when my mom suggested The Watsons Go to Birmingham–1963. I bought this book last year, and she read it before we brought it home about six months ago. Who knows how long it would have languished on the To Be Read shelf before seeing the light of day, without that prompt and Mom’s suggestion!
Publisher’s description:
Enter the hilarious world of ten-year-old Kenny and his family, the Weird Watsons of Flint, Michigan. There’s Momma, Dad, little sister Joetta, and brother Byron, who’s thirteen and an “official juvenile delinquent.” When Momma and Dad decide it’s time for a visit to Grandma, Dad comes home with the amazing Ultra-Glide, and the Watsons set out on a trip like no other. They’re heading South to Birmingham, Alabama, toward one of the darkest moments in America’s history.
My thoughts:
I really enjoyed The Watsons Go to Birmingham–1963. It is a delightful mixture of humor and trouble. For example, in the first chapter, the family is huddled under a quilt on the couch to keep warm in a Michigan winter when the furnace wasn’t working—and Dad told the children that they could have ended up with a man named Hambone Henderson for a father. The next scene depicted someone whose lips got frozen onto a mirror! Later chapters describe bullying and cruelty among schoolboys, tall tales, and siblings sticking up for each other.
I loved Momma. She did her best to keep the children in line and take care of them, but being a Black woman in a white society, and a transplant from the South to the North, was not easy. And then there was the trip to Birmingham! I had to laugh at her ultra-planning, and then at what Dad did with that.
The last several chapters were not funny. This book was written around the event when an unknown person bombed a Black church in Birmingham, killing and injuring several little girls. Living through that event left Kenny struggling with life—what would it take to recover? I loved the ending.
WARNING: Chapter 1: Whole dang city. Chapter 3: So darn mean. Chapter 4: Boy mistreating other boys. Chapter 13: Near drowning. Chapter 14: Bombing.
Age levels:
Listening Level—Ages 10 – 12, 12 – 15, Family Friendly
Reading Independently—10 – 12, 12 – 15, 15 and Above
Links to buy this book:
Amazon: Paperback | Kindle | Hardcover | Audible Audiobook (unabridged)
AbeBooks: View Choices on AbeBooks.com
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