Wonderful Historical Fiction

           The Watsons Go TO Birmingham, 1963

This historical fiction story about a family’s ups and downs is set right in the height of the Civil Rights era in 1963. The reader can follow the journey through Kenny’s eyes, a very smart, ten year old boy. He is a great reader and gets bullied because of it and most of it comes at the hands and words of his older brother Byron. He has to watch as Bryon gets into trouble and follows the wrong crowd which results in their family trip back to the south to Mrs. Watson’s hometown. While in Birmingham Kenny experiences some traumatic events that change him and the relationship between his brother Byron and himself. Kenny wants to find out what the “Wool Pool” is about and if it is true and ends up getting sucked into the whirlpool and has to be saved by his brother. After that he becomes distant and suffers from some hallucinations which actually leads to Kenny saving his younger sister Joey from a church bombing. The language combined with the author’s style and word choice give the reader a good understanding of life as an African American family in the 1960’s.

Paul Curtis, C. (1995). The Watsons go to Birmingham 1963. New York: A Yearling Book.

                             Good Masters, Sweet Ladies

Lord’s nephew, shepherdess, pilgrims, mud slingers, merchant’s daughters, and knight’s sons are all found in this book of medieval times. The book consists of nineteen monologues and two dialogues with each one telling the story of a child between the age of ten and fifteen from this medieval time period. Mixed in with the monologues are pages of background information to help the reader further understand and comprehend the monologues. Each monologue describes a life event for that child that makes a big impact and describes the social status of that child. Even though the story is told through several different characters the reader can learn a lot of factual information from this book of fiction. The author includes footnotes to go along with each monologue to inform/teach the reader and help them understand the story.  The author explains medieval life through different levels of wealth, jobs and experiences. Even though the medieval times is hard for people of this time period to picture, the author does a good job of using the appropriate language to give the reader a good understanding of the time period.  

Amy Schlitz, L. (2007). Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village. Massachusetts: Candlewick Press

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