The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

Although there are many reasons why this book is good, I found it only slightly entertaining. It is very well written and is a very believable historical-fiction book, but to me it just wasn't really interesting until the end where everyone thinks that Joey (or Joetta) has died in the bombing of the Baptist Church in Birmingham. I don't know what this might say about me, but this is after all an opinion based blog and I am giving my opinion. I liked all the characters pretty well, especially the dad because something about him reminds me of my brother-in-law. I think its the fact that he can always tell when he's going to get a reaction out of you, so he plays it up a little. Byron seemed to be a very stereotypical older brother figure, and Kenny seemed to be a very stereotypical everyman character. I liked that the story shows the differences between two parts of America, but I feel like the issue of race was just kind of thrown in at the last second to try and generate buzz for the book. I mean, yes I realize that the whole book takes place in a very different time in our nations history and it is important to get this across to younger generations, its just the author of the book even admits that the book didn't even have to do with the bombing in Birmingham until after his son brought home a school project on it, and you can tell. The issue of race is hardly even mentioned until the final chapters of the book. I will say, however, I did like that there was a follow up story after that takes place after we find out that Joey is ok, because I feel most authors would just leave it at that somewhat happy ending, but then there is the whole story about how Kenny deals with what he saw and it leaves you with a chilling feeling. I like that at least. I would suggest this for a class reading assignment on the Civil Rights Movement, just make sure that there is more information available than just the book.