The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963

by

Christopher Paul Curtis

Grandma Sands Character Analysis

Grandma Sands is Wilona’s mother and Kenny’s grandmother. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama, where Wilona grew up. Because she’s extremely strict and old-fashioned, the children fear her. For years, Daniel and Wilona have threatened to send Byron to live with her if he doesn’t behave, but both Byron and Kenny always assumed this was an empty threat—until, that is, Daniel and Wilona announce that the family will be traveling to Birmingham to drop Byron off at Grandma Sands’s house. When the family arrives, Kenny is astounded to see how small and elderly she looks—he has never seen her before, but he always assumed she was large and scary, since everyone always talks about how strict she is. Byron, however, immediately treats her with respect, and though he tells Kenny that he behaves this way because he doesn’t want to be responsible for accidentally killing Grandma Sands, Kenny senses that he’s lying: in truth, he just doesn’t want to upset her. Grandma Sands has a boyfriend named Mr. Robert, who lives with her.

Grandma Sands Quotes in The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963

The The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 quotes below are all either spoken by Grandma Sands or refer to Grandma Sands. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Change, Coming of Age, and Maturity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 11 Quotes

After Grandma Sands gave us directions Byron looked at me sideways and said, “What you starin’ at, square?”

I just shook my head.

“What you expect?” By asked. “You seen her. That bird’s as old as dirt. She’s so old I bet she used to step over dinosaur turds. I ain’t gonna have her death on my hands.”

I knew that was a lie.

It seemed like all of the fight was out of Byron and we’d only been in Birmingham for a couple of minutes.

Related Characters: Kenny Watson (speaker), Byron Watson (speaker), Grandma Sands
Page Number: 161
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

I picked up my spoon and kept eating. This was great! I’d never seen Momma act like a little kid who just got yelled at but there she was, picking at a piece of paper towel and looking kind of embarrassed.

Related Characters: Kenny Watson (speaker), Wilona Watson (Kenny’s Mother), Grandma Sands, Mr. Robert
Page Number: 168
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

Who could understand Byron? Here was a chance for another Fantastic Adventure and he was going in the wrong direction. Something was wrong with him. If he was in Flint and you told him not to do something he’d go right out and do it, but now he was acting real dull and square. Maybe it was the heat, maybe just like it had sucked all the energy out of me it had sucked all the meanness and fun out of Byron.

Related Characters: Kenny Watson (speaker), Byron Watson, Joetta Watson (Joey), Grandma Sands
Page Number: 170
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

Grandma Sands called a couple of times and told them that the police thought two white men drove by in a car and threw it in during services, or that they’d already hidden it in the church with a clock set to go off during Sunday school. However it got in the church it had killed four little girls, blinded a couple more and sent a bunch of other people to the hospital. I couldn’t stop wondering if those two little girls I saw on the lawn were okay.

From my secret hiding place in the living room I could listen to Momma and Dad and it seemed like they spent most of the time trying to figure out how they could explain to us what happened. Some of the time they were mad, some of the time they were calm and some of the time they just sat on the couch and cried.

Related Characters: Kenny Watson (speaker), Daniel Watson (Kenny’s Father), Wilona Watson (Kenny’s Mother), Grandma Sands
Page Number: 191
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 PDF

Grandma Sands Quotes in The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963

The The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 quotes below are all either spoken by Grandma Sands or refer to Grandma Sands. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Change, Coming of Age, and Maturity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 11 Quotes

After Grandma Sands gave us directions Byron looked at me sideways and said, “What you starin’ at, square?”

I just shook my head.

“What you expect?” By asked. “You seen her. That bird’s as old as dirt. She’s so old I bet she used to step over dinosaur turds. I ain’t gonna have her death on my hands.”

I knew that was a lie.

It seemed like all of the fight was out of Byron and we’d only been in Birmingham for a couple of minutes.

Related Characters: Kenny Watson (speaker), Byron Watson (speaker), Grandma Sands
Page Number: 161
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

I picked up my spoon and kept eating. This was great! I’d never seen Momma act like a little kid who just got yelled at but there she was, picking at a piece of paper towel and looking kind of embarrassed.

Related Characters: Kenny Watson (speaker), Wilona Watson (Kenny’s Mother), Grandma Sands, Mr. Robert
Page Number: 168
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

Who could understand Byron? Here was a chance for another Fantastic Adventure and he was going in the wrong direction. Something was wrong with him. If he was in Flint and you told him not to do something he’d go right out and do it, but now he was acting real dull and square. Maybe it was the heat, maybe just like it had sucked all the energy out of me it had sucked all the meanness and fun out of Byron.

Related Characters: Kenny Watson (speaker), Byron Watson, Joetta Watson (Joey), Grandma Sands
Page Number: 170
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

Grandma Sands called a couple of times and told them that the police thought two white men drove by in a car and threw it in during services, or that they’d already hidden it in the church with a clock set to go off during Sunday school. However it got in the church it had killed four little girls, blinded a couple more and sent a bunch of other people to the hospital. I couldn’t stop wondering if those two little girls I saw on the lawn were okay.

From my secret hiding place in the living room I could listen to Momma and Dad and it seemed like they spent most of the time trying to figure out how they could explain to us what happened. Some of the time they were mad, some of the time they were calm and some of the time they just sat on the couch and cried.

Related Characters: Kenny Watson (speaker), Daniel Watson (Kenny’s Father), Wilona Watson (Kenny’s Mother), Grandma Sands
Page Number: 191
Explanation and Analysis: