Search - The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 (Yearling Newbery)

This is a wonderful book. I know it is rated for young adult reading, but is great reading for adult also. This is the story of a close knit family who want to go visit Grandma in Alabama, in 1968 it isn't the best time for them to be there. This is funny, there are lots of smiles in this book. Eye opening to see thru the eyes of the Watson family how peolple were treated in this era. You'll be glad you met this Watson family in this read. I am.

teriffic and funny. I enjoyed it.( A book for kids too!you will will enjoy it.)

I read this long ago in my teens or tweens and it moved me then, but reading it now as an adult I think I appreciate it even more. Ten-year-old Kenny Watson and his family live a regular life in Flint, Michigan. He's got a lazy eye but is smarter than average, his 13-year-old brother Byron acts like a juvenile delinquent sometimes, and his younger sister Joetta is an annoying snitch. When Momma finally gets fed up with Byron's antics, she decides that the whole family will make a trip to Birmingham, Alabama to visit her mother, where she plans to leave Byron for a few months to straighten him out. Little does she know that their family is traveling to keep an appointment with one of the darkest times in American history, the bombing of the Sixteenth Avenue Baptist Church during Sunday school on September 15, 1963 that killed 4 teenage girls, which remains an unsolved crime to this day.

I loved this book for the characters and the glimpse of life it showed you of the time, the trials a young boy goes through in school, having to contend with bullies and an overbearing yet at times unexpectedly protective older brother. While the story never shows the Watsons experiencing overt racism, it is evident from clues that it exists in the background. And Kenny undergoes a painful passage into adolescence when he is confronted with the bombing and its aftermath. Though some have faulted this book for not showing enough of the struggle for basic human rights that blacks went through at the time, for the target age group this is a good introduction to it. Through the eyes of Kenny, young adults are given a glimpse of the life of an African American family at the time of the civil rights movement, a pivotal point in America's history. This book deservedly won several awards, including the Newbery Honor, and is one of my favorites.

I love this book. I teach it to my students and they enjy it tremendously. Story line teaches them about Civil Rights, but the characters are hilarious so the kids enjoy it.