lflores13

Citation:

Annotation:

Enter the world of ten-year-old Kenny and his family, the Weird Watson's of Flint, Michigan. When Momma and Dad decide it's time for a visit to Grandma, Dad comes home with the amazing Ultra-Glide, and the Watson's head South to Birmingham, Alabama...toward one of the darkest moments in America's history.

A hilarious, touching, and tragic novel about civil rights and the impact of violence on one African American family.

Author's Information:

Christopher Paul Curtis was born and reared in Flint, Michigan. After high school graduation, he worked on the assembly line of the Fisher Body Plant/Flint Plant No. 1 and graduated from the Flint branch of the University of Michigan. His first book, The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963, received a Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor book citation in 1996, and Bud, Not Buddy received the Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award in 2000.

His most recent book Elijah of Buxton won a Newbery Honor, the Coretta Scott King Author Award, and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction in 2008. "This novel came to me in a way that was far different than any other," states Curtis. "From the word 'go' Elijah and I became close friends. When I'd go to the library to write, it was as if he were anxiously waiting for me, waiting to tell about his life, his worries, his adventures."

Christopher Paul Curtis lives with his wife and two children in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

Rewards:1996 Newbery Honor Book
1996 Coretta Scott King Honor Book
An ALA Notable Book
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
The New York Times Book Review Best Book
A Horn Book Fanfare

Reading Level: Grades 6-8

Genre: Historical Fiction