Reading Questions The Watsons Go to Birmingham

Chapters 9 - Epilogue Answer all questions in complete sentences unless it is fill in the blank,

Chapter 9

Focus: characterization, flashback, idiom

1. Explain in a few sentences (more than one) why Momma and Dad

think it is important for Byron to live in Alabama.

2. Infer how you think Kenny likes to open presents.

How do you know?

3. Why didn’t Joetta like the angel Mrs. Davidson gave her?

4. Why do Momma and Dad have Byron sleep in their

room the night before they left for Alabama?

5. What does the idiom “flown the coop” on page 130 mean?

6. On pages 131-133, what do you learn about the character of

Momma? (indirect characterization)

7. In Momma’s plans for the trip, on Day 1 they plan to spend the night in

a hotel but on Day 2 they plan to sleep in the car at a rest stop. Why?

8. Look at the flashback in this chapter. What is Byron’s plan to “get

back” at his family for taking him to Alabama?

Pg. 122 – “I know you’ve seen on the news what’s happening in some parts of the south, right?”

“We’d seen pictures of a bunch of really mad white people with twisted-up faces

screaming and giving finger signs to some little Negro kids who were trying to go to school. I’d

seen the pictures but I really didn’t really know how these white people could hate some kids so

much.”

In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that all segregation in public schools is "inherently unequal"

and that all blacks barred from attending public schools with white pupils are denied equal

protection of the law as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. Schools were ordered to

integrate "with all deliberate speed."

Forced school integration led to much violence. The most notable instance was the defiance in

1957 of federal orders by Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas, who called out the Arkansas

National Guard to prevent integration in Little Rock. President Eisenhower responded by

sending federal troops to enforce the court order for integration.

In 1958 Virginia closed nine schools in four counties rather than have them integrated, but

Virginia and federal courts ruled these moves illegal. In 1960 desegregation began in Louisiana;

whites boycotted the integrated New Orleans public schools at first triumphantly, later with

diminishing effectiveness. In 1961 two black students registered at the Univ. of Georgia but were

suspended because of student disorders; they were later returned under a federal judge's order.

In 1962–63 violence erupted in Mississippi, precipitating a serious crisis in federal-state

relations. Against the opposition of Gov. Ross R. Barnett, James H. Meredith, a black who was

supported by federal court orders, registered at the Univ. of Mississippi in 1962. A mob gathered

and attacked the force of several hundred federal marshals assigned to protect Meredith; two

persons were killed. The next day federal troops occupied Oxford and restored order. Meredith

became the first African American to attend a Mississippi public school with white students in

accord with the 1954 court decision.

Chapter 10

Focus: diction, mood/tone, setting, stereotype

1. At the first rest stop Byron and Kenny make a new discovery.

Byron is even more dismayed to find out the Grandma Sands

has one in Alabama.

What is it? __________________________________________

What is the boys’ reaction?

2. Find and cite the allusion on pg. 142.

What is important about this allusion?

3. In the flashback on page 143, what do you learn is Dad’s plan for

driving to Alabama?

4. Explain the stereotyping on pg.146.

5. The author uses diction when describing the settings in this chapter.

At the Tennessee rest stop (pg. 145-46) the tone/mood of the setting is

________________________________________________.

But as they drive away (pg. 147-48) the mood/tone changes to

___________________________________________________.

(Carefully annotate the diction in these paragraphs that create the

mood/tone)

Appalachian Mountains, also called Appalachians ,

great highland system of North America, the eastern

counterpart of the Rocky Mountains. Extending for

almost 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometres) from the Canadian

province of Newfoundland and Labrador to central

Alabama in the United States, they form a natural

barrier between the eastern Coastal Plain and the vast

Interior Lowlands of North America.

Ch. 11

Focus: personification, simile, irony, characterization, setting, idiom

1. Dad makes up funny “country” names for the family. What “country”

name would you give yourself? ________________________

2. List 3 compound adjectives on page 153.

a.____________________ b. ____________________ c.____________________

3. Describe the setting in Birmingham. What does Kenny notice?

4. Why is this chapter titled “Bobo Brazil Meets the Sheik?” (allusion)

4. Who/what would you choose to be good representations of evil versus evil?

______________________________________________

Why?

5. Kenny has never seen Grandma Sands. Contrast what he thought she would be like

to how she really looks. Cite at least 3 examples from the text for each…

Grandma Sands

What Kenny imagined… What Kenny really saw…

A.. A.

B. B.

C. C.

This is an example of ________________________ (literary term).

Pin 1963, postcards were a common form of communication with friends and

family when away on vacation. Write one postcard from Kenny and one from

Byron telling about their trip so far.

Post Card

Post Card

Chapter 12

Focus: setting, characterization, allusion,

figurative language, theme, idiom

1. The first sentence of the chapter is a ____________________

&_______________________. (types of figurative language)

What is the effect (what does it tell the reader)?

2. How is Mr. Robert like Toddy?

3. What did the Watson boys have a hard time believing about Mr. Robert?

4. Explain the allusion on pg.165 .

5. What was the “important” conversation Momma and Grandma Sands

was having?

6. How is Byron reacting to his new setting (environment)?

7. What is a theme in this chapter? (hint: the title of the chapter is an idiom that can help you understand the theme!)

Ch. 13 Focus: foreshadow, irony, symbolism

1. The first paragraph is an example of____________________________.

Explain:

2. What does Byron tell Kenny and Joey the “Wool Pooh” is?

3. What really is the “Wool Pooh”?

4. While wading in the water, what happens to Kenny?

This is an example of a(n) ______________ conflict.

5. Draw a picture of the Wool Pooh and cite three pieces of textual evidence to

prove your drawing is accurate.

Cite three pieces of textual evidence that proves your drawing is correct

A.

B.

C.

6. Who does Kenny think he sees under the water that causes him to fight back?

_______________________________

7. Who pulls Kenny out of the water?_______________________________

8. Describe Byron’s reaction to Kenny’s almost drowning and explain it (what

does it show?).

Reaction Explain

9. The “Wool Pooh” is an example of symbolism.

What does it represent?

Ch. 14 focus: symbolism, conflict, irony

1. Describe what Joetta wore to church.

2. Cause and Effect

Cause Effect

Mama screams, and Byron runs

out of the house in his socks.

3. What does Kenny see a man carrying out of the church?

4. Why does the man look like “he’d been painting with red, red paint”? (184)

5. Walking into the church, what does Kenny see underneath some concrete?

6. Infer what Kenny thinks it is:

7. Who/what does Kenny take the shoe from?

_____________________________________________

8. What does this symbolize?

9. Why does Kenny leave the church?

10. What does Kenny think when he sees Joey back at Grandma

Sands house? Why?

11. Why doesn’t Kenny want to look at Joey at Grandma’s house?

12. What is Kenny’s internal conflict?

13. Why wasn’t Joey in the church when it blew up?

14. So, in a sense, at the whirl pool ________________ saves _______________

and at the church __________________ saves _____________________.

This is an example of __________________________.

15. This chapter is a good example of irony. Think back to the beginning of the book

and Mama’s description of the South. Now, explain the irony of this chapter.

Go to this site to watch a video about the bombing.

http://www.schooltube.com/video/0a42bfb25c865187b548/

Klan%20Bombing%20of%20Birmingham%20Church%201963

Read the following poem and complete the analysis of

each stanza.

Ballad of

Birmingham

In "Ballad of Birmingham," Randall conjures one of the most vivid and vicious chapters from the

civil rights movement: the bombing of a church in 1963 that wounded 21 and cost four girls their

lives. The poem begins with a dialogue between mother and daughter during which, ironically,

the mother forbids the daughter to march for freedom, fearing that street violence will erupt.

Instead, she gives permission for the daughter to sing in the children's choir at their church. How

could the mother know, of course, that the streets, that day, might have offered some relative

safety? The tragedy, a central feature of many ballads, becomes especially clear and poignant at

the end, when the mother searches for her missing daughter. The poem can speak for itself.

BALLAD OF BIRMINGHAM ANALYSIS

"Mother dear, may I go downtown What does the child want to do?

instead of out to play,

and march the streets of Birmingham

in a Freedom March today?"

"No, baby, no, you may not go, Why is she told “no”?

for the dogs are fierce and wild,

and clubs and hoses, guns and jails

ain't good for a little child."

"But, mother, I won't be alone. Why does the child feel she

Other children will go with me, will be safe?

and march the streets of Birmingham

to make our country free."

"No, baby, no, you may not go, Where does her mother tell her

for I fear those guns will fire. to go? Why?

But you may go to church instead

and sing in the children's choir."

She has combed and brushed her nightdark hair, What is the importance

and bathed rose petal sweet, of this stanza?

and drawn white gloves on her small brown hands,

and white shoes on her feet.

The mother smiled to know her child This stanza contains what

was in the sacred place, literary element?

but that smile was the last smile

to come upon her face.

For when she heard the explosion, Infer what the mother

her eyes grew wet and wild. thinks has happened.

She raced through the streets of Birmingham

calling for her child.

She clawed through bits of glass and brick, What has happened to

then lifted out a shoe. her daughter?

"O, here's the shoe my baby wore,

but, baby, where are you?"

1. What factual information does the author include in the poem?

2. What do you think is the author’s purpose for writing this poem?

3. In the last stanza, why do you think the mother refers to her daughter as “baby”?

4. What similarities do you see between this poem and

The Watsons Go to Birmingham?

Ch. 15 Focus: conflict, characterization, irony, theme, point-of-view

1. What were the results (deaths, injuries) of the bombing?

2. When did the Watsons leave Birmingham?

Why?

3. After returning to Flint, who is Momma and Dad most worried about?

Why?

4. Where had Kenny been hiding?

Why there?

Kenny is upset about what happened in Birmingham yet he is also ashamed. (internal

conflict)

5. Why is he upset?

6. Why is he ashamed?

7. Who helps Kenny feel better? ____________________

How?

This is an example of ____________________

8. Byron tells Kenny that there are no “magic powers, genies, or angels” but Kenny

believes there is. What does Kenny discover is “magic’?

This is an example of a_____________________

9. Both Byron and Kenny are different at the end of the book than they are at the

beginning. Tell how each boy has changed. (dynamic character) Give several!!!

Kenny

before Birmingham during/after Birmingham

Byron

before Birmingham during/after Birmingham

10. What is the…

A. climax of the novel?

B. falling action of the story?

C. resolution of the story

11. What do you predict for Kenny?

12. What impact does the first person point-of-view have on the novel?

13. The Watsons Go to Birmingham has a very serious message about

a great tragedy and a terrible time in American history, yet it is a funny

story. Why do you think the author used so much humor in this novel?

Epilogue

1. Why do you think Christopher Paul Curtis wrote this epilogue?

2. What are the themes of this novel? (give at least three!!!)

A.

B.

C.