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The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963

The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis is one of my absolute favorite reads from grade school. My sister received a hardcover copy of the book as a book prize for the Newberry Reading Contest at our school, which allowed me to first read it. This is a historical fiction novel for readers ages 10 and up, published by Delacorte Press and Curtis's first novel. He also wrote Bud Not Buddy- a similar title. Other historical fiction works that parallel The Watsons Got to Birmingham are The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles and Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Doreen Rappaport. Again, this is one of my favorite reads from 5th grade because of Curtis's humor, writing style, and the setting of the book.

Wool Pooh. The Brown Bomber. Captain Byron Watson and His Flamethrower of Death. The World-Famous Watson Pet Hospital. The reader delves immediately into Kenny's world and family life with humorous, yet accurate chapter titles in this prime example of children's historical fiction. The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 uses an integral setting, Flint, Michigan and Birmingham Alabama, with other states in between. The central conflict of the story is a person-against-society conflict, with this taking place in 1963 and ending with a church bombing. However, the reader also sees Kenny struggle with himself, his peers, and his family, but in minor ways compared to the central conflict. Curtis uses an episodic plot that leads up to their trip to Alabama. He has a casual writing style as he writes from the perspective of Kenny, the middle child between his 13 year-old brother Byron and 5 year-old sister Joetta. He uses an approachable vocabulary, but develops his characters by using a dialect and accentuating Kenny's mother's, Wilona, accent. Curtis includes a foreword to detail the true-life events he writes about and to historicize his books within the context of the US and the Civil Rights Movement. He uses a first-person narrator, Kenny, to lead us through the road trip south. Curtis also uses symbolism to add depth to his story. Joetta is a symbol for innocence and purity, as is the angel. The "wool pooh" is a symbol of death and struggle that Kenny grapples with throughout the story. A more detailed symbol could be Curtis's inclusion of 3 little girls going to church in the red, white, and blue dresses, a symbol of the American flag, and thus what the US did/still does to its citizens. Other symbols are the Brown Bomber, the dove Byron hits with a cookie, and Kenny's dinosaurs. The overall tone of the book is funny, reflective, and attentive to the climate of the US in 1963. The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 deals with themes like family, growing-up, racism, equality, relationships, and the journey. We learn that bad things happen to good people and that sometimes there is no easy explanation for it. Curtis also includes strong major and minor characters and supports them with character development.

The reader is introduced to the protagonist, Kenny Watson, and later learns more about the cast of characters. Other important characters in the book are Kenny's parents Wilona and Daniel, his siblings, Byron and Joetta, and his grandmother, Grandma Sands. They are supported by minor characters like Byron's friends, Kenny's friends and classmates, and new acquaintances in Alabama. Kenny is the middle child, at 10 years-old, who has a lazy eye, which causes him trouble at school. His brother may tease him about it, but he is a very good student. He begins the book as a close shadow to Byron, struggling with friendships and bullying at school, but has a good relationship with his parents. The events in Alabama change Kenny on a profound level. He has never encountered such overt racism; his life in Flint has protected him from it. This causes Kenny to challenge his belief system and learn how to deal with hate and ignorance after the horrible incident. He is motivated by his desire to be cool like Byron, but also enjoys school. His character development happens quickly, in a culminating point after the bombing, rather than a gradual progression through the book. We see Kenny express adult emotions and can infer he is depressed. Kenny has a lot of guilt and must wrestle with questions of morality, blame, and social inequality and class. I remember not understanding his depression when I first read it, but I do remember Kenny as an important character. Now, I can appreciate the quick succession of events and character development Curtis uses. It makes sense to build up the tension and conflict of the novel that way and then have Kenny deal with it the way someone would have had to- immediately after and each day after too.

Curtis uses on-target language and vocabulary for his readers. There are not too many challenging words, although trying to read a written-out Southern accent could be difficult for students who have never heard one. For example, "wool pooh" may be a very hard term to understand because students who have not been exposed to a Southern accent may not hear its similarities to whirlpool. The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 is brimming with symbolism, as previously explored. Curtis also uses imagery and metaphors to make some of the hard issues easier to understand. His use of imagery is especially relevant as he writes about driving south for 3 days. I get chills when he writes about Appalachia! He connects well with the reader through his use of humor and on-point chapter titles. His characters relate well to the reader too. Curtis is able to write about true events in the South in 1963 without blaming anyone overtly, but rather gives the reader the space and information to come to their own conclusions.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book for younger Young Adult readers. The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 continues to be a favorite book and its message has stuck with me after 11 years of first reading it. I still cite this as a foundational text in my development as a reader. I would also argue its importance in my early social justice education. I like Curtis's use of humor to combat the heavy issues he brings up and his honesty. I laugh out loud reading this book, but also fight back tears and anger at the end. I still struggle a little with the ending and Kenny's depression because the emotional vocabulary Curtis uses is limited. I understand that something is wrong and has upset Kenny, but it takes a lot of digging to come up with answers of guilt and depression. Budding activists, compassionate students looking out for the welfare of others, and historical fiction fiends will love this book. I cannot recommend The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 enough for its humor and efforts as a central title in social justice education.

As stated previously, The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 is a great introduction in to social justice education. It offers a starting point for what-would-you-do conversations and for a unit on the Civil Rights movement or Dr. King. One more light-hearted classroom activity would be to have students, 5th grade or 6th grade level, design their own road trip and make a travel notebook the way Mrs. Watson did. However, they could tie it in to Social Studies by making it a Civil Rights driving tour and have each group be responsible for a different event or state. Students could work in small groups and present their travel notebooks or even a trifold poster as an illustrated map to the class. This meets Common Core Speaking and Listening Requirements 5.4 and 5.5, dealing with presentation style and incorporating visual materials. A classroom activity that deals overtly with issues of social justice would be to analyze and examine The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 and famous photographs from the Civil Rights movement to highlight examples of social inequality, i.e. the church bombing in the book with a photograph of the remains of the charred church, and think of examples of how to take action. Photographs could come from Getty or Time Magazine online databases. Teaching Tolerance has a great unit plan on using photography to teach social justice. More info here: http://www.tolerance.org/lesson/using-photographs-teach-social-justice . This activity would meet Common Core standards for close reading of the text and using content in other media, anchor requirements for reading #1 and #7.

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The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 Reading Response

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The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis is one of my absolute favorite reads from grade school. My sister received a hardcover copy of the book as a book prize for the Newberry Reading Contest at our school, which allowed me to first read it.

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