“To me the highest accolade comes when a young reader
tells me, ‘I really liked your book.’ The young seem to be
able to say ‘really’ with a clarity, a faith, and an honesty
that we as adults have long forgotten. That is why I write.”—Christopher
Paul Curtis
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
Born in Flint, Michigan, Christopher Paul Curtis spent his
first 13 years after high school on the assembly line of Flint’s
historic Fisher Body Plant #1. His job entailed hanging car
doors, and it left him with an aversion to getting into and
out of large automobiles—particularly big Buicks.
Curtis’s
writing—and his dedication to it—has been greatly influenced
by his family members, particularly his wife, Kaysandra. With
grandfathers like Earl “Lefty” Lewis, a Negro Baseball League
pitcher, and 1930s bandleader Herman E. Curtis, Sr., of Herman
Curtis and the Dusky Devastators of the Depression, it is
easy to see why Christopher Paul Curtis was destined to become
an entertainer.
Christopher
Paul Curtis made an outstanding debut in children’s literature
with The Watsons Go to
Birmingham—1963. His second novel, Bud,
Not Buddy, is the first book ever to receive both
the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Author Award.
Christopher Paul Curtis Fun Facts
FAMILY
- Christopher
Paul Curtis and his wife, Kaysandra, have two children,
Steven and Cydney.
-
Christopher modeled characters in Bud,
Not Buddy after his two amazing grandfathers—Earl
“Lefty” Lewis, a Negro Baseball League pitcher, and 1930s
bandleader Herman E. Curtis, Sr., of Herman Curtis and the
Dusky Devastators of the Depression.
WRITING
-
Christopher Paul Curtis is a great reader, but as a youth
he could not find books “that were about me.”
-
After high school, Christopher spent 13 years on the assembly
line of the Fisher Body plant, hanging 80-pound car doors
on Buicks (while attending college at night!). He wrote
during his breaks to escape the noise of the factory.
-
Christopher took a year off from work to write The
Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963. He sat in the children’s
room of the Windsor Public Library and wrote in longhand.
His son Steven typed his father’s drafts into their computer
and served as first reader.
HOBBIES
-
Playing basketball
- Collecting
old record albums
-
Writing!
FAVORITE
BOOKS
- Anything
by Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut, or Zora Neale Hurston.
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