NPR's Backseat Book Club pick for January is Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963. According to NPR, the book was chosen because "[it] has the ability to entertain and inform young readers as the country remembers the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. for the national holiday in his name. It also provides some powerful lessons about following your dreams." I've read it—and unlike most books that aim to entertain, inform, and contain powerful lessons, this one is pretty readable, too.

Labels: Backseat Book Club, Christopher Paul Curtis, NPR