The Watson's Go to Birmingham

Written By: Chistopher Curtis
Publisher: Yearling 1995
Fiction - Novel - Historical Fiction

A wonderful middle-grade novel narrated by Kenny, 9, about his middle-class black family, the Weird  Watsons of Flint, Michigan. When Kenny's  13-year-old brother, Byron, gets to be too much trouble,  they head South to Birmingham to visit Grandma, the  one person who can shape him up. And they happen to  be in Birmingham when Grandma's church is blown  up.

I did not enjoy this book as much, because it was slow and did not grasp my attention. I think it illustrates what the African Americans had to go through during this time period, but not until the end. I didn't feel like it taught a good lesson, because it talked about how terrible Byron was all the time.  The last three-quarters of the book caught my interest, because it was interesting and created an image of what it was like to live in that time period. I don't think I would choose to read this book again.
**
                                                         2 stars out of 5

22 points