Sunday, June 17, 2007

Historical Fiction Choices


I know I'm behind the times, but for my summer class I read The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. I found this book really enjoyable on many levels. Because it's not overloaded with historical references and it's more just really funny stories about a family, it doesn't really read like historical fiction, so those of you not into this genre will still find plenty of entertainment.

I used to teach a class at Westview called History Through Film, and one of the films I would show was a documentary called Four Little Girls directed by Spike Lee. This was a pretty harsh movie that got pretty graphic at times, but it was really well done and my students learned a lot about the struggles and losses during the civil rights movement. It would be a good companion piece for Watsons to explain the ending of this book.

Who else has read this book? Did you like it? What other historical fiction books have you read?

:)
Mrs. P

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Msr.Murruy read to her class.

Anonymous said...

Iv read this book and this is a book i could not get tired of reading it and i love dragons there so cool!

Anonymous said...

Peter and the Starcathers is a pretty good book. if you like fantasy, and you like peter pan stories you'll like this

Anonymous said...

OMG this book is SOOOOOOOOO good!!!! Read this!

Anonymous said...

i have read this book in class and it rocks so if you check it out you will love it.

Anonymous said...

I'm reading this book now and so far it is very very good.

Anonymous said...

Hiya! I can't believe that byron got his tounge stuck on the car! this is such a great book!

Anonymous said...

mr. loghlin read this book to his 2006-2007 5th grade class and i loved it!!!!!!!!!! READ THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!

Mrs. P said...

Hey Link!
Sorry I didn't respond before... where are you now? So many funny-but-true parts in Watsons!
:)
Mrs. P

Anonymous said...

Hi Mrs. Pulley sorry i couldnt resopond sooner. I finnished the book finnaly. but to anyone thats reading my comment i don't want to spoil the surprise. Great book. I'd recomend this book to everyone.

Anonymous said...

what?!?! this is a true story. why didn't anyone tell me before? oh i forgot my manners. i'm zelda a not so new part of altona. hehe. so this is a true story? maybe i should have paid attention to the
"historical fiction part" well great book. i already got to the end. hehe my favorite part of this book is when by gets a funny hair style. well its been nice talki-oops i meant typing sorry.

Mrs. P said...

Oops! Sorry, Zelda--
My fault. I didn't mean funny-but-true as in TRUE. This book is historical FICTION. The characters are a creation; it's the setting and some of the events that are true. I don't want to give to much away here, but please know that, as far as I know, the Watsons and their lives are NOT TRUE.
Again, apologies for the confusion, and see me if you want to know what's true in the book!
:)
Mrs. P