Picture Copyright © 2004 Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. Christopher Paul Curtis The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963

In 2000, he was the first African-American to win both the Newbery & Coretta Scott King awards He was born May 10, After high school he worked in a automobile factory while going to college. He wrote a book on his breaks from the automobile assembly line. He now lives in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, with his wife and two children.

1. Basketball 2. Collecting old record albums Christopher Paul Curtis’s Hobbies

Awards for his book published in Runner-up for the Coretta Scott King award for excellence by an African-American writer 1995 – Runner-up for the Newbery award Winner ALA Best Books for Young Adults Winner ALA Notable Children's Books Winner California Young Reader Medal

The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis Kenny Watson is ten years old and thinks his family should be called “The Weird Watsons of Flint.” His family decides to leave Flint, Michigan, and go to visit their Grandmother Sands in Birmingham, Alabama. The book is set in the year Many things are happening in the United States related to Civil Rights during this time. Kenny’s family consists of his older, bully of a brother called Byron and his younger, pesky sister Joey.

During the visit to Birmingham, a church was bombed (In real life it was the 16 th Street Baptist Church) 4 little girls were killed in the church bombing

Oh no, where is Joey, Kenny’s little sister, after the bomb went off. She had gone to that very church!