by Christopher Paul Curtis
Coretta Scott King Award Winner
The main character and narrator of the story is Kenny, the middle child of a middle class family in Flint, MI. Kenny has a lazy eye and is bullied at school.
Kenny’s older brother, Byron, who also bullies Kenny, starts skipping school and becoming defiant towards his parents in other ways, such as playing with matches and getting a “conk” haircut against his parents’ wishes.
Kenny’s parents decide to have him stay with his Grandma Sands in Birmingham, AL. With careful planning, the family begins the trip to Birmingham. They arrive right in the heat of racial conflicts in Birmingham.
One Sunday morning, Kenny expects his sister has attended the Sunday school where a bomb has gone off. He goes to the church to find his sister and thinks she was blown up. He is in a trance, physically and emotionally altered by the event.
When he goes home his sister is at the door and Kenny thinks he is seeing a ghost. The Watsons return to Michigan, all of them deeply affected by what they experienced in Birmingham.
Literary Qualities – The climactic event in the novel is the church bombing that takes place in Alabama when the Watsons are there. Placing Kenny’s very likable sister as a possible victim in the bombing, an actual historical event, provides an extra sense of outrage and loss for the reader. Kenny’s profound reaction to the event is made more real for the reader as a result of these events.
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