The Watsons go to Birmingham - Christopher Paul Curtis

It is the long, hot summer of 1963 and the Watson family - father, mother, Byron who is behaving like a teenage delinquent, little Joetta and Kenny, the one in the middle who tells the story - set out from Michigan to stay with their Grandma in Alabama. It is the childs first experience of the deep South, and it is devastating when a bomb is thrown into the church and Joetta is presumed dead. The Watsons are a wonderful family who swing you along with their jokes, worries, squabbles, and genuine love and care for one another and this story, despite its tragic message, shines with warmth, humour and joie-de-vivre.