Like
The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, many of Christopher Paul Curtis’s novels feature coming-of-age stories that center around young Black protagonists. His second book,
Bud, Not Buddy, shares a number of similarities with
The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, since both novels are set in Flint, Michigan, have young Black boys as their main character, explore race and history, and involve road trips through the United States.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 also has a lot in common with
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, another Young Adult work of historical fiction in which three sisters go to live with their mother in Oakland, California in the summer of 1968 and end up in the same orbit as the Black Panther Party. Because
The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 is also about bullying, it’s worth considering alongside
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang and Lynda Mullaly Hunt’s
Fish in a Tree, both of which are about what it’s like to experience bullying as a young person. In terms of relevant books outside the Young Adult genre, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s
Why We Can’t Wait provides an in-depth account of the push for desegregation and racial equality that took place in Birmingham in the summer of 1963.