The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963

What a great book. At first I thought the title was misleading but they sure did go to Birmingham and they sure experienced it. I wanna read more stories like this.

Books came within two days and were brand new as promised!

Good.

Bueno

My 8 year old and I listened to this audio book. It's told from the perspective of a boy about my son's age. There are some too silly parts, like an older brother who gets his tongue stuck on a frozen rear view mirror, and installing a record player in a car. Both seem unrealistic to me. There are also some "older brother's language" issues (cussing or referring to cussing), and references to the middle finger salute, which I could have done without. The mother threatens to burn the older brother who is caught playing with matches again. Otherwise the family is likable and the story held our interest. When the older brother is getting into too much trouble the parents plan a trip to Birmingham Alabama, where they plan to leave him with Grandma. When they get there things don't seem the same as the old days growing up there. Desegregation is causing hostilities and violence which the family has to deal with. This part of the story is handled in an unusual way. We see things thru the eyes of a young boy who has some life threatening experiences and we experience some of his delusions, fear and grief he feels. In the end the big brother who was a problem earlier now feels compassion and concern for his little brother and helps him deal with his feelings. So some parts are not so great, but then maybe life is like that. We see some of the less appealing parts of this family and end up loving them anyway. I still recommend it.