The Watsans Go to Birmingham- 1963

The Watsans Go To Birmingham- 1963

This book is about a family in the 60's with three kids, Byron whose age is not mentioned, Kenny who is ten and Joey who is five. Byron is the oldest kid and gets into the most trouble. He is always skipping school and lighting fires and is really mean to his little brother Kenny.  Kenny is the opposite of Byron. Kenny never gets in trouble. He is very smart and reads alot but has no friends. Byron is the top of the school and can make anyone do anything he wants where as Kenny has one lazy eye that sits in the corner and gives kids a reason to tease him. Byron gets in so much trouble that his parents can't take it anymore and they decide to take the long drive to Grandma Sands in Alabama to drop Byron off for the summer to learn to be a better kid.  Joey is the boy's younger sister who is very emotional and cries all the time about everything but yet everyone loves her. Since she is so emotional she finds it very hard to leave her big brother in Alabama so of course she cries. Grandma Sands is very mean and very strict so it was very hard for Byron.

I loved this book. I loved how it was set in the 60's so you had to use your imagination and try and imagine what it would have been like. I also really liked how the book was written from the point of view of Kenny the middle child. I am the oldest of three so it was very interesting and different to hear a story told from a middle child's point of view. I would recommend this book to people eleven and up because it is an easy read but you do need background knowledge of the time period to really understand what was happening.