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=The Lower School Book Club is currently reading:=

**The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963**
by Christopher Paul Curtis A Newbery Honor Book The Coretta Scott King Award "A wonderful middle-grade novel narrated by Kenny, 9, about his middle-class black family, the Weird Watsons of Flint, Michigan. When Kenny's 13-year-old brother, Byron, gets to be too much trouble, they head South to Birmingham to visit Grandma, the one person who can shape him up. And they happen to be in Birmingham when Grandma's church is blown up." (From Random House)

The librarians hope that each boy will read this with another guy, hopefully a male role model. Bring that guy to the first meeting. Our First Meeting will be **December 1st, 7:30am-8:15am** for books and bagels

Activities for the Book Club could include:
[|Mapping the Watsons' Travel Route between Flint, Michigan and Birmingham, Alabama] [|Listening to Yakety Yak] [|Watch the Voices of Civil Rights for other Stories of the Civil Rights Era] Investigating Freezing Skin Using Ice Cube Trays [|Read the Author's Biography]

General Discussion Questions (From The Kids' Book Club Book):
How did the author turn a funny story into a tragedy? What was the meaning of the Wool Pooh experience? What are the connections between bullying and prejudice toward Rufus in the first part of the book and the church bombing in the second? Were you surprised by the change in Byron in Birmingham?

Specific Issues in the Story (From randomhouse.com's teacher's guide)
Read Pages 66-74 when Byron's mother threatens to set him on fire if he continues to play with matches. This is an unbelievable punishment that she almost carries out. Was Byron's mother correct to choose such a harmful punishment? Was she bluffing to frighten Byron? How would it be viewed today? What should she have done?

Read Kenny's passage about bullying (pages 58-63) and discuss alternatives to bullying. When should mediation intervene? How do you avoid such situations? See if the boys can brainstorm to develop solutions.

Wrap Up
Watch YouTube Book Report video about Prejudice media type="youtube" key="vEyBaWP4Z7c" height="344" width="425"