The Watsons Go to Birmingham
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50 free The Watsons Go to Birmingham trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 starts as a comedy about a loud, loving family in a freezing Michigan winter and ends in one of the darkest moments of the civil rights era. Kenny, the ten-year-old narrator, watches his older brother Byron collect one punishment after another until their parents decide the only cure is a summer with their strict grandmother in Alabama. Christopher Paul Curtis's first novel has been a classroom staple since 1995 because it makes readers laugh before it asks them to think. This quiz follows the book from start to finish. Expect questions on Kenny's troubles at Clark Elementary, Byron's schemes and what they cost him, the preparations for the road trip, the family's stay with Grandma Sands, and the Sunday morning that changes everything. A handful look at the real history that shaped the ending and at how the author came to write the story. It works as a chapter-by-chapter comprehension check for students, a ready-made multiple choice review for teachers and parents, or a quick test for anyone who read the novel years ago. The opening questions are the most approachable, later ones reward close readers, and every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01While scraping ice off the family car, which part of Byron Watson freezes to the side mirror?
His lips
His lips stick fast because he has been kissing his own reflection. Hot water only freezes on the glass, so his mother finally yanks him free.
Q 02What nickname, shared with a famous boxing champion, do the Watsons give their ageing family car?
The Brown Bomber
The Brown Bomber gets new parts, a deep clean and a pine-tree air freshener before the long drive south. Joe Louis, the original, held the heavyweight title from 1937 to 1949.
Q 03How does Daniel Watson punish Byron for coming home with the straightened hairdo he was forbidden to get?
He shaves his head
He shaves his head, leaving Byron completely bald and furious. The stunt is the last straw: soon afterwards his parents phone Alabama and start planning the trip.
Q 04What does Byron Watson throw from an apple tree that accidentally kills a bird on a telephone wire?
A cookie
A cookie with pink frosting does it, one of a bagful Byron had charged to the family's grocery account. The tough guy is sick with guilt and quietly gives the bird a grave.
Q 05Which surprise gadget does Daniel Watson fit to the family car's dashboard before the drive to Birmingham?
A record player
A record player called the Ultra-Glide is the surprise, built not to skip when the car hits a bump. His wife storms off over the cost, then comes back out to listen.
Q 06Which natural hazard nearly drowns Kenny Watson at a forbidden swimming hole in Alabama?
A whirlpool
A whirlpool is what Grandma Sands warns of, but her drawl turns the word into Wool Pooh. Byron then invents a monster to fit the name, the evil twin of Winnie-the-Pooh.
Q 07When Wilona Watson tries to burn Byron's fingers for playing with matches, how does Joetta stop her?
She blows out each match
She blows out each match before it can touch him, again and again, until their mother gives up. The punishment is handed over to Dad instead.
Q 08Back in Michigan after the Birmingham bombing, where does a shaken Kenny Watson hide for hours each day?
Behind the couch
Behind the couch is where the family's sick pets crawl to recover, and Byron once said the spot was magic. Kenny waits there for the same cure.
Q 09Besides being the teachers' favourite reader, what gets Kenny Watson teased at Clark Elementary?
His lazy eye
His lazy eye draws so much teasing that Byron teaches him a trick: look at people sideways when they talk, so the eye is harder to spot.
Q 10Members of which group planted the 1963 Birmingham church bomb that the Watsons' story builds towards?
The Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan planted dynamite under the church steps, killing four girls. It took until 1977 for the first of the men responsible to be convicted.
Q 11The Watsons live in which Michigan car-making city, also the hometown of author Christopher Paul Curtis?
Flint
Flint is where the whole family was born except Wilona, who moved up from Alabama to marry and never stops complaining about the northern cold.
Q 12Kenny, narrator of The Watsons Go to Birmingham, gives his own family which adjective as a nickname?
Weird
Weird is his word: he calls them the Weird Watsons from the first chapter, when it is so cold that they wear scarves inside the house.
Q 13Who is Byron Watson's best friend and partner in crime, a fellow bully of the younger boys?
Buphead
Buphead helps Byron toss Kenny into a snowbank in the name of blizzard survival training. He is also the one who gives Byron his forbidden hairdo.
Q 21Christopher Paul Curtis followed his Watsons debut with which novel about a runaway orphan in the Great Depression?
Bud, Not Buddy
Bud, Not Buddy drew on the author's own grandfathers, one a bandleader and the other a Negro league pitcher. Its hero is ten years old, the same age as Kenny.
Q 22Which civil rights leader spoke at the funeral of three girls killed in the Birmingham church bombing?
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King spoke before the burials, with some 800 clergy of all races in the congregation. No city official came to the service.
Q 23Thirteen-year-old Byron Watson rules Clark Elementary because he is still stuck in which year of school?
Sixth grade
Q 14Which toys do Kenny Watson and his friend Rufus Fry play with almost every night after school?
Plastic dinosaurs
Plastic dinosaurs are their armies: the boys stage battles of Americans against Nazis, and Rufus never minds being the Nazis.
Q 15What does school bully Larry Dunn steal from Kenny Watson and then stain a darker colour to hide the theft?
Leather gloves
Leather gloves are a rarity in town, where most children make do with cheap mittens. Dark smears left in the snow give Larry away.
Q 16The climax of The Watsons Go to Birmingham is based on the 1963 bombing of which real place of worship?
16th Street Baptist Church
16th Street Baptist Church had been a rallying point for civil rights marches all spring, the place where students trained for the Children's Crusade. The bomb went off on Sunday 15 September.
Q 17The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 was a 1996 runner-up, or Honor Book, for which American children's book prize?
The Newbery Medal
The Newbery Medal itself went to The Midwife's Apprentice that year. Curtis won it outright four years later with his second novel, the first African American man to do so.
Q 18What going-away present does neighbour Mrs. Davidson give Joetta Watson before the trip to Birmingham?
A little angel
A little angel is the gift, chosen because the neighbour says it reminds her of Joetta. Joetta thanks her politely, then hides it in her sock drawer because it is white.
Q 19What drives Joetta Watson out onto the church porch shortly before the bomb goes off?
The heat
The heat inside sends her to the porch, where she sees a boy she takes for Kenny waving from over the road. She chases him all the way home and so escapes the blast.
Q 20What does Kenny Watson pull from the rubble of the bombed church, believing it belongs to Joetta?
A shiny black shoe
A shiny black shoe like hers is what he tugs free, sure the Wool Pooh is gripping the other end. He carries it home in a daze, only to find Joetta there wearing both of her own.
Sixth grade is as far as Byron has got, having flunked at least once. Kenny dreads the day his brother moves up to junior high and takes his protection with him.
Q 24Rufus Fry, the new boy Kenny Watson befriends on the school bus, has just moved from which state?
Arkansas
Arkansas gives Rufus the country accent and worn clothes that make him the bus's new target. Kenny first sees him as a saviour, someone to draw the bullies away.
Q 25Byron Watson tells Joetta that which vehicles pick up frozen Southerners outside their house each morning?
Garbage trucks
Garbage trucks, he claims, haul the bodies away before anyone wakes. The fib works: Joetta stops complaining about the layers of winter clothes her mother makes her wear.
Q 26What is Byron Watson setting alight when his mother catches him with matches again?
Toilet-paper parachutes
Toilet-paper parachutes are props in a film he is pretending to shoot, each one lit and dropped into the bowl. The constant flushing is what brings his mother upstairs.
Q 27Byron Watson hates signing for groceries at Mitchell's store because he assumes the family is on what?
Welfare
Welfare is what he fears people will think, though signing only means Dad settles the bill on payday. Byron soon sees the upside and starts charging treats for himself.
Q 28Which hairstyle of the era does Byron Watson come home with, hidden under a hat, against his parents' orders?
A conk
A conk meant straightening the hair with a harsh lye-based relaxer. Byron's comes out stiff and reddish, and his mother greets it by renaming him Señor Byroncito.
Q 29At the family's first Ohio rest stop, what do the Watson children find when they look for the toilets?
An outhouse
An outhouse, a wooden seat over a deep hole, horrifies Kenny and Byron. Their parents laugh that Byron had better get used to it, because Grandma Sands has one too.
Q 30Wilona Watson plans a first overnight stop in which Ohio city, only for Daniel to drive straight past?
Cincinnati
Cincinnati was meant to end day one of her careful three-day plan. Daniel had secretly decided to drive the whole way to Alabama without stopping to sleep.