This month's pick for middle school students is The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. This very funny story of an African American family is told from the point of view of Kenneth, the ten-year-old "good" son in the Watson family. Thirteen-year-old Byron is Kenny's brother, the juvenile delinquent whose constant rebellions make his parents decide to take him to live with his strict maternal grandmother in Alabama for the summer, and possibly longer. Kindergarten age Joetta rounds out the family with their prankster father Daniel and loving but stern mother Wilona.
The book is not all comedy. The real-life bombing at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church forms a central plot element, but what I loved about the book is its honest, hilarious portrayal of family dynamics. Pick it up today and I bet you'll be able to hear some echo of your own sibling spats. Along with the fighting and the teasing, though, the author reveals the depth of this family's ties and that's what I found inspiring.
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