The Watsons Go to Birmingham

The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis was an easy way to get into the head of an African American family during the 60s. This family was an innocent, nice family, that had normal family problems, but had to deal with other ones, too. The two oldest children fight over silly things. like most siblings. The older brother's friend likes to get involved too. I loved that it was told from Kenny's point of view, because it was even easier to see how they felt. The little funny family fights were a great way to introduce the book, and made the reader automatically see what the Watsons were like. But then again, they were an African American family in the 60s, and not all things were fun and games. Curtis did an amazing job of illustrating the bombing of the church for us. I feel like anyone that reads this story sees them all and all the situations almost similar in all of our heads. I really felt for the Watsons, and teared up many times.
As much as I do not like to preach, and just want to teach, I feel like using the Watson's in your classroom from ages 5th-8th grade will get students to realize how hard it was for them, and understand how, just STUPID racism is, and even giving harsh judgements and teasing to any type of people. I recommend this book 100%.