The Watsons Go To Birmingham

The Watsons Go To Birmingham, is a fictional book written by Christopher Paul Curtis, telling the story of a family that call themselves the “Weird Watsons”. The story takes place in 1963 in the city of Flint, Michigan. The Watsons’ middle child, Kenny, describes the events that happen to his family as some life changing occurrences shape their overall view of mankind. While in Flint, the Watsons enjoy their time together as a family doing activities that many would call “weird”. They had dinosaur wars, listened to their record player in the car, and dealt with the wild brother, Byron, straightening his hair. I loved how Kenny describes the way his mom makes a peanut butter sandwich. They felt safe and welcome in Flint.

But everything changed the day that Momma announced the family was heading to Birmingham, Alabama to stay with their Grandma. Unlike their life in Flint, they quickly discovered that there were distinct racial differences in Birmingham in 1963. Because the book takes place during the civil rights movement, this was a difficult time for African Americans. Much of the discrimination against African Americans still existed in the south and the Watsons felt the burden of this. It is interesting and sad to hear Kenny’s perspective on how the African American people were treated during that time. Their churches were bombed and many other places of meaning just to show them that they shouldn’t have any rights.

I think that the author does a great job of opening our eyes to see how things were during such a hard time for the African American people. He was able to describe the harsh reality of certain events but kept me laughing because of the underlying humorous events that happened to the Watson family.

I loved this book and would give it an A because it was a great story with both serious and funny elements to the story. I highly recommend this book to all readers.