The Watsons go to Birmingham By: Shelby Pettit The Watsons go to Birmingham is a very good book. It is about a black family during the 1960’s, during this time discrimination was a big issue. The family called The Weird Watsons. The family had Momma, Dad, little sister Joetta, big juvenile brother, Byron, and the middle child, Kenny. At this point in time Kenny is only 11 so he does not know that much about how racist the world really is. The family live in Michigan and one day they get a new car called “The brown bomber” and decide to go visit Grandma in Birmingham, Alabama. They are going because Byron has been acting a lot worse so they might leave him with Grandma when they come back. When they go down there they are seeing even more …show more content…
Joetta is performing in the children’s choir but after wards kenny goes home with his Mom and Dad and Byron. While Joetta stays with the children’s choir. They hear a huge loud explosion and Mom and Dad run to the church. Byron follows and tell Kenny to stay at the house. But Kenny does not listen. He runs down to the church and sees fire and many people running and crying. He finds a hole in the wall so he climbs through it into the church. He finds his Joetta’s shoe and runs back home and crys. Soon later his family comes home and Joetta is with them. He is relived. But he realizes that even though the world is not perfect he has to keep pushing through. Historical Accuracy: Technology: This book has the same the same type of cars (The brown Bomber), and the same types of old phones and radios. Culture: The Watson’s go to church and talk about God a lot. Location: Birmingham, Alabama really had a lot of Discrimination and Martin Luther King Jr. spoke there. Events: That bombing at the church and many more had happened many times at black churches. Themes: The main theme in the book is Discrimination, was a very big problem for a very long time. I really enjoyed this book and i would definitely recommend this book. Words: