Setting

Author

Christopher Paul Curtis

Publisher

DelacortePress

Copyright

1995

The Watsons Go to Birmingham — 1963

Settingis made up

of two elements.

Clues about the time period of the story

The book’s title refers to the year 1963.

The Watsons drove a 1948 Plymouth named the “Brown Bomber.”

True-Tone AB-700 Ultra-Glides were used in cars from 1957–1968.

The TV news anchor’s name was Walter Cronkite.

Popular singers at the time were Nat King Cole and Dinah Washington.

Kenny’s favorite song was The Coasters’

“Yakety Yak”

The most important text clue is the reference to Kenny helping

his sister leave the church where the bombing of the Sixteenth

Avenue Baptist Church took place on September 15, 1963, in

Birmingham, Alabama.

Birmingham Post-Herald

BOMB BLAST KILLS 4 CHILDRENINJURES 17 AT CHURCH HERE

The journey from Flint, Michigan,

in the North to Birmingham,

Alabama, in the segregated South

was approximately 850 miles.

In 1963, the Watsons planned

to drive that distance in three days.

Time Place

The story would not have been

the same if it had taken place

in a different time period.

The bombing at the church in

Birmingham during the Civil

Rights Movement, an event that

actually happened, affects the

family—especially Byron and

Kenny.

The story would not have been

the same if the locations had

been different. The family travels

from a large city in the North

to a large city in the segregated

South. The story would have

been entirely different if the

locations had been different or if

the trip had happened in reverse.

Setting