The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963by Christopher Paul Curtis
Historical Fiction
Scholastic, 1995
Summary: The story takes place in Flint Michigan with a family of five that include the children Joetta, Kenny, Byron, a mother Wilona, and father Daniel Watson. Kenny tells of his problems being picked on by the other children in school and his brother Byron and his friend Buphead. Byron has been causing trouble for his family, lighting matches in the house several times and creates himself a new hairdo. Byron’s parents decide it is time he go and stay with his grandmother in Birmingham for the summer or maybe longer. The family traveled to Birmingham at the same time that segregation was occurring. The Watsons witnessed first hand how whites were against the integration of blacks.
Rationale for Use: This book shows how the character Byron changes from a person who treated his brother terrible to helping his brother get over a terrible time in his life. The book does a good job making the characters seem real and dealing with real life situations. It also has several areas of suspense, for example where Kenny goes swimming in Biringham.
Content Area Connection: I would use this book to connect with Virginia History and SOL VS.9 about how Virginia played an important part in the Civil Rights Movement. Chapter 14 gives the most detail about events that were occurring during this time period with the bombing of a church. It does not tell why the church was bombed but through a class discussion we could figure out that it was due to segregation in the south.
Possible Problems or Areas of Concern: The only problems I had with this book was, the language. There are a lot of curse words in the book so I would probably use it as read aloud book so that can skip the bad language.
~Ashley Glass
I think historical fiction is a powerful teaching tool. Mitchner is my favorite. I was coming of age during the civil rights era, so I would likely enjoy this myself. So many young people think they know so much about how things were before they, and frequently thier parents, were born. This sounds like a good read for a family.
ReplyDeleteI read this book while we studied Civil Rights. The students really enjoyed the author's humor on family life. Many students could relate.
ReplyDeleteStacy Whitt
I have never read this book, but it has definitely peaked my interest. I plan to use it this year with my 5th grade guided reading groups to incorporate with Part 2 of the VA Studies curriculum.
ReplyDeleteHeather Fajna
I met him at a librarian's conference. He was our guest speaker for the author (dinner) night. What a wonderful person. He spends lots of time researching before he writes and it shows since it seems he only writes award winners. This one and Bud, Not Buddy are great for 7th grade Social Studies teachers/classes.:-) -Debbe
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