Publication Date: December 1995
Reading Level: Lexile Measure 920L, Scholastic Guided Reading Level U
Interest Level: Grades 6 - 8
Major Awards: 1996 Newbery Honor
Number of Pages: 210 pages
Approximate Word Count: 64,050 words -- The average reader will spend 4 hours and 16 minutes reading The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 at 250 words per minute.*
Audible Book Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
Book Themes: Coming of Age, Family, Friendship, Race, Mortality, Guilt and Blame
Genre: Young Adult Literature; Coming-of-Age; Family Drama; Historical Fiction
Setting: Flint, Michigan and Birmingham, Alabama—1963
Important Quote:
There's one good thing about getting in trouble: It seems like you do it in steps. It seems like you don't just end up in trouble but that you kind of ease yourself into it. It also seems like the worse the trouble is that you get into, the more steps it takes to get there. Sort of like you're getting a bunch of little warnings on the way; sort of like if you really wanted to you could turn around.
First Line: It was one of those super-duper-cold Saturdays.
Point of View: First Person (Central Narrator - Kenny Watson)
*Estimate from Reading Length
