When young Byron Watson becomes too much to handle, his family decides to send him from Flint, Mich. to his legendarily tough Grandma Sands in Birmingham, Ala. — that incendiary year of 1963 when tensions over school desegregation were roiling.
Curtis tells NPR's Michele Norris that much of the book was inspired by the history he witnessed — as well as his own memories of growing up in Flint. For instance, at one point Byron lights toilet paper parachutes over the toilet and flushes them away.
"It was based on me," says Curtis. "I just threw matches in the toilet. I liked the sound they made when they hit the water." When Curtis tried to get away with burning the matches by locking the bathroom door, his mother kicked the door down and lifted him in the air by the collar, much as it happens in the book.
