The Watsons go to Birmingham-1963 - Required Reading

I read The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis just after reading A Long Way From Chicago. I thought that there was no chance for this new book to be as good as the last one I had read, but I was wrong. I very much enjoyed The Watsons go to Birmingham-1963. I was already laughing on page two when the main character Kenny refers to his older brother as an "official juvenile delinquent" because he is now thirteen years old. As it turns out, his brother was indeed a delinquent. It was nice to see, however, that his brother really was looking out for him.

I was surprised during this book because I thought a lot of the story would be about the Watson family's trip to Birmingham. While this did take up 5-6 chapters, the Watson family did not really even leave their home in Flint, Michigan until the tail end of chapter 9. Instead, the author spent the first 9 chapters telling about the lives of each family member, including Kenny's flashbacks. In the end though, this book was less about the Watsons actually going to Birmingham, and more about them being a family and caring for each other which I thought was especially evident in the very end (which I won't give away...). I would definitely recommend this book to my students to read.