Historical Fiction

Curtis, Christopher Paul. (1995). The Watsons go to Birmingham-1963. New York: Dell Laurel-Leaf.

Kenny Watson’s older brother is your average juvenile delinquent. Kenny’s parents have had enough and their oldest son’s actions are getting tiresome.  After the final straw, the Watsons decide to travel from Flint, Michigan to the Deep South in the hopes of giving their son an eye-opening experience by leaving him with his grandmother. Instead, the entire family and community experience what happens when people are motivated by racism and destruction.

Kenny Watson’s life is never dull. He has a juvenile delinquent for a brother, a tattletale for a younger sister, a mother who talks really southern when she gets upset, and a goofball of a father who loves to exaggerate a story.  Most of the novel is set in Flint, Michigan in 1963, where all Kenny needs to worry about is who is stealing his dinosaurs, trying to understand the choices his brother makes, and trying to fit in. When Kenny’s brother Bryon’s trouble goes too far, his parents decide to take him down to Birmingham, Alabama to spend the summer with his Grandma Sands. This was a time during the civil rights movement, when African Americans struggled to overcome racial discrimination, so there trip was carefully planned. When a church in Birmingham is bombed, killing four little girls, Kenny’s world is shattered from the weight of the violence.  His family, even Bryon, rallies around Kenny to help him understand his feelings of guilt, and that things won’t always be fair.  Told from Kenny’s point of view, the reader gets to experience the humorous quirks of the Weird Watsons through his innocence, transformation and his love for his family.

Laura Amy Schlitz. (2007). Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Cambridge: Candlewick Press.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! is written in verse with the intention of being read aloud. These stories of teen masters and maidens of the past capture the medieval time period with tales of hard work, being poor, even rich and the struggles and hardships of classes during that time.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! tells stories in a monologue format from a variety of voices.  Set in medieval times the  twenty-two characters are children or young adults, whose lives are all interconnected within a fictional town surrounding a manor. Each character has a unique voice that sheds light about the struggles and hardships of the time. They are each from different class distinctions, such as Taggot, the blacksmith’s daughter who will never marry, Pask , the runaway who is waiting for freedom, and Simon, the knight’s son who becomes a monk.  There are contrasts between the rich and the poor, the hungry and the well-fed, as well as the pretty and the not- so-pretty.  The author uses the margins to share tidbits of information that helps the reader understand the culture and traditions of medieval times.