The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963

Curtis, C.P. (1995). The Watsons go to Birmingham—1963. New York: Delacorte Press.

Grade Level: 5-8

Genre: Multicultural (1996 Coretta Scott King Honor Book)/Historical Fiction

Summary:  The Watsons Go to Birmingham- 1963 is the humorous story of an African-American family told through the eyes of ten-year-old Kenny Watson. Kenny is the middle child. He has an older brother, Byron, who is thirteen and an “official” juvenile delinquent, and a younger sister, Joey, who always tries to protect Byron from punishment. Kenny does not get along with Byron and can’t understand why Joey always sticks up for him. Kenny’s parents are typical parents that love their children and do their best to take care of them.
The story of the Kenny and his family begins in Flint, Michigan. Kenny is smart, but he gets picked on, mainly due to his lazy eye. Kenny doesn’t have any real friends; the only one he thinks he has steals his dinosaurs. Then a new kid named Rufus moves to Kenny’s school. Rufus talks funny and is too friendly to be considered cool and the kids begin to pick on him instead of Kenny. Kenny thinks of Rufus as his “personal saver” and the boys begin to forge a friendship. That friendship is soon put to the test when Kenny laughs at a joke played on Rufus. Kenny has to apologize before Rufus will be friends with him again. During all this, Kenny’s older Byron is giving Kenny and his parents a hard time. Byron picks on Kenny all the time, charges grocery items to his parents’ account without them knowing, gets a hairstyle called a conk that his parents do not approve of, and plays with fire, literally. Kenny’s parents feel they are losing control of Byron and decide to take a family trip to Birmingham, Alabama  (where Kenny’s mother is from), where they will leave Byron with his Grandma Sands. Her job will be to straighten Byron out. The trip to Birmingham becomes an adventure in itself, riding down in the Ultra-Glider, listening to music, and playing games. In Birmingham, Kenny and his siblings meet their grandmother, Kenny almost drowns, and Joey almost gets killed in a church bombing. In light of the bombing and civil unrest, the Watsons return home quickly. Kenny has a hard time dealing with what almost happened to Joey, but Byron helps him through it and Kenny begins to start his life again.

Reflection: Before I read this book, I thought it would focus primarily on the Civil Rights Movement. I was rather shocked to find that the Civil Rights Movement was not even mentioned until the very end of the book. Christopher Paul Curtis takes a different approach. He tells the story of an African-American family in the North, removed from the civil unrest in the South. He involves the reader in their life, telling humorous stories about the “Weird Watsons.” Then, towards the end of the story, he sends the Watsons to the Deep South, where one of them is involved in one of the biggest events in our nation’s history. Then the Watsons leave and deal with the tragic event in their home in the North. So the story was told from the view of a ten-year-old African-American boy who lives in Michigan. I think this is an innovative way to tell a story about the Civil Rights Movement.

This book would be absolutely invaluable in the classroom. Students would enjoy it because it is easy to read, it is funny, and they can relate to the characters in the story, regardless of their race. The book could be used to teach about the Civil Rights Movement and the effects of racism, prejudice, and discrimination, the nature and value of friendships, the importance of family support, or about grieving and how people deal with grief in their own way. Students could take any one of these themes from the book and go crazy with it. For example, for the Civil Rights Movement, students could make a timeline, make a news broadcast about the church bombing, interviewing both white and African-American by-standers, or pretend like they are interviewing Rosa Parks. Students could make a collage about what it was like to be an African-American in 1963 compared to being a white person in 1963 or write a diary entry as Joey, describing the bombing. The really great thing about this book is that there are all kinds of other directions you could go to help the students make a connection to the book, to the time in which it took place, or to their own lives. Students could pick out the songs that are listened to by the Watsons and research the artists that performed the songs and what those songs said about the times. Students could plan a vacation like the Watsons did, down to the cost of gas and where they would stop. Students could also trace the trip the Watsons made on a map to see how far they traveled. Students could prepare a persuasive speech and deliver it to the class, like Martin Luther King, Jr. did in the Civil Rights Movement. Seriously, the list could go on and on, so I’ll stop here.

There are only a few issues (that I can think of) that may come up regarding the use of the book in this classroom. One of the issues may be understanding what it was like being an African-American in 1963. Another issue might be the violence of the bombing. Students may not understand why someone would want to kill little kids. A third issue might be the concept of racism and prejudice. I’m not sure how students would react to these things. It would depend on their upbringing and social situation. I do know these issues can be addressed and the book used as a tool in teaching and understanding about these things.