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Christopher Paul Curtis’s 1995 historical-fiction novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 centers on a Black family navigating their daily lives in Flint, Michigan, against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement and racial unrest in the U.S. South
. Narrated by ten-year-old Kenny Watson, the novel tells the story of the Watson family coming face-to-face with racial violence on a trip to Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963. Written with young readers in mind, this bildungsroman is a Newberry Honor Book and a Coretta Scott King Honor Book. The novel was adapted into the movie The Watsons Go to Birmingham in 2013 by the Hallmark Channel.Read the full book summary, a complete list of character descriptions, and explanations of important quotes from The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963.