In this realistic fiction book, a family called the Watsons head down to Birmingham, Alabama to visit their grandmother. The visit isn’t a planned and fun little road trip to visit family; it’s a trip to help get the oldest son in the family inline by grandma. Once there though, their grandmother’s church is blown up by someone out of hate and it changes Kenny, the son who is narrating the story. Hiding can’t fix what’s wrong with him, but amazingly his “bad” brother can help.

This book not only shows children a point of view from an African-American family back in the 60s, it also is relatable from a ten year old’s point of view at life in a crazy family. This book can make you laugh one minute and cry the next.

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Curtis, Christopher Paul. (1995). The Watsons go to Birmingham, 1963. New York, NY: Delacorte.