The Watson Go to Birmingham: by Christopher Paul Curtis, Historical Fiction – Chapter Book

This book is about an African American family who leaves in Michigan. The family has three children Kenny, Byron, and Joey who are all quite active and mischievous. Byron misbehaves the most out of the three children because of these it is decided that he will spend the summer in Alabama with his grandmother. The family makes a long fifteen hour road trip to Alabama where they experience how things are different in the Southern part of the United States because of racial issues. I think this book could be used as part of a unit on the civil rights movement in the United States. Also this book could be used to talk about how segregation was not as prevalent in other parts of the country as it was in the South.