The Watsons go to Birmingham

I chose to read this book because my SBTE recommended it highly out of the choices that we had. I really appreciate this book because although it deals with a sensitive issue, it is still humorous and definately enjoyable to read. Curtis does a really good job with the characters in this novel. Each of the characters, even the less prominent ones, were described so that they were easy to picture in ones mind, they all had their own very distinctive personality traits which made it very interesting. The dialouge between the characters was also interesting, you could see what they were saying and imagine how they were supposed to sound when saying it.

I can see where this book would be really helpful in a classroom, especially in my field placement. My teacher integrates social studies with language arts, and they study this novel every year when they discuss civil rights in 5th grade history. This book shows the differences between the northern and southern parts of our country at this time, in a more interesting way than a history textbook by sharing a childs point of view of this time period.

After finishing the book, I can definately see why my SBTE was so high on reading this book in particular!