One of the complete works the American Section is reading this year is Christopher Paul Curtis’s book The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963. It tells the story of Kenny Watson and his family as they make their way from Flint, Michigan to Birmingham, Alabama in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement of the ’50s and ’60s.
Through reading and analyzing this novel, American Section students are improving their vocabulary and grammar skills as well as learning about narration, character, setting, and plot points. Kenny’s narrative voice gives us many opportunities to explore colloquial language and figures of speech like hyperbole and simile.
The Problem We All Live With by Norman Rockwell
Though the novel focuses primarily on Kenny and his family, the Jim Crow South and the Civil Rights Movement are forever present in the background. As the Watsons get closer to Birmingham, they also near one of the major events of American history- a moment that will act as a call to resist the segregation governing much of the United States at the time.
What do you know about the Civil Rights Era in the United States?