Research Paper on:
Christopher Paul Curtis's Literary Style

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
with The Watsons Go To Birmingham in 1995, receiving rave reviews for his sensitive yet lighthearted telling of two black kids caught in the turbulent South of the 1960s. Then,  in 1999, he followed up his initial success with Bud, Not Buddy, a story about fulfillment during the Depression that earned him a spate of awards, including the Newbery Award  and Coretta Scott King Honor. His ability to make use of literary nuances and his often-hilarious storytelling style have made for very unusual stories for kids-entertaining, but with depth and  an understanding of serious events and issues that is lacking in most of the "lighter" fare available for children today. The result is a potent combination and a lesson: One  can understand and be touched by serious, even tragic events without being bowed or overcome by them. In both of Curtis works, the hero is a 10-year-old from Flint, Mich.,  and it is through the childs eyes that the story is told and the events unfold. This much Curtis has in common with many other childrens book writers, but there  the similarity ends. The stories are told with a wry innocence coupled with a worldly understanding with which many adult writers have trouble crediting children. The banter and the imaginative  use of language on the part of his young characters give a warmth and depth to them that is more reminiscent of Huckleberry Finn than most of the childrens books  on the market today. In The Watsons Go To Birmingham, young Kenny is suffering, in the manner of 10-year-olds everywhere, under the shadow of his 13-year-old brother Byron, who, he  assures us, is "officially a teenage juvenile delinquent" (Parravano 1996). His exploits are outrageous typically early-teen: having his hair processed against orders, setting fires, and of course, cutting school, and