by Nicole Bailey

Created on: April 16, 2009

"The Watsons go to Birmingham-1963" is a text often included in mandatory reading lists for middle school students, though this may be more for content matter than literary merit. The novel is set up episodically: most of the anecdotes related are humorous and revolve around a young African American boy living in the cold, cold north. The way Curtis writes the family is spot on: the relationship between brothers rings very true throughout, and any child will be able to relate to the often awkward social situations the boys face.

While the first two thirds of the novel is made up of episodes about childhood and family, the last third or so takes an entirely different turn, when the family makes a seemingly sudden trip to Birmingham to try and remedy behavioral problems on the part of the oldest son. While down South, the Watsons are thrust into history as the church some of their members attend is bombed. While this section of the novel discusses a very important historical topic, it does not read well from a literary point of view. As Curtis himself admitted, he never intended for this section to be part of the book. Curtis started out wanting to just write about a family and their relationships with each other, and instead ended up adding the historical event onto the end. This makes the shift from humor to seriousness feel unnatural and awkward.

This book is worthwhile for kids, who will appreciate the humor (such as when the main character mishears the word "whirlpool", pronounced with a southern accent as "Wool Pooh", and believes there is a dangerous creature called the Wool Pooh lurking about) and Curtis' honest depiction of sibling relationships. It can also give kids valuable lessons about the importance of family, love and looking out for each other.

Overall, I feel that this book can be used to open up discussion of race relations and history, but is not the best choice for good, well written literatare or in depth literary analysis. I would not suggest this as mere pleasure reading, and if I were to assign it in class, it would most likely be in conjunction with other books on the topic of race relations that might delve into history more thoroughly and meaningfully. The parent or teacher would also do well to explain the social context of the book and what happened in Birmingham before having a child read the book, so that they understand the events of the novel, which can be confusing without some background.

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