Transcript Slide 1
Christopher Paul Curtis
The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963
Picture Copyright © 2004 Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
•In 2000, he was the first African-American to
win both the Newbery & Coretta Scott King
awards
•He was born May 10, 1953. After high
school he worked in a automobile factory
while going to college. He wrote a book on
his breaks from the automobile assembly
line.
•He now lives in Windsor, Ontario, Canada,
with his wife and two children.
Christopher Paul Curtis’s Hobbies
1. Basketball
2. Collecting old record albums
Awards for his book published in
1995.
1995 - Runner-up for the Coretta
Scott King award for excellence by
an African-American writer
1995 – Runner-up for the Newbery
award
Winner 2000 - ALA Best Books for
Young Adults
Winner 2000 - ALA Notable
Children's Books
Winner 2000 - California Young
Reader Medal
The Watsons Go to
Birmingham ---1963
by Christopher Paul Curtis
•Kenny Watson is ten years old and thinks his family
should be called “The Weird Watsons of Flint.”
•His family decides to leave Flint, Michigan, and go to
visit their Grandmother Sands in Birmingham,
Alabama.
•The book is set in the year 1963. Many things are
happening in the United States related to Civil Rights
during this time.
•Kenny’s family consists of his older, bully of a brother
called Byron and his younger, pesky sister Joey.
During the visit to Birmingham, a church was bombed
(In real life it was the 16th Street Baptist Church)
4 little girls were killed in the church bombing---------------
Oh no, where is Joey, Kenny’s little sister, after the bomb went off.
She had gone to that very church!