In 1954, Christopher Paul Curtis, son of Herman and Leslie Curtis, was born in Flint, Michigan, and like the characters in The Watsons Go to Birmingham—2963, Curtis grew up there. Delaying his pursuit of a college education, he went to work on the assembly line at the Fisher Body Automobile Plant in Flint from 1972-85. Curtis also worked at Automatic Data Processing in Allen Park, Michigan, and as an assistant to Senator Don Riegle in Lansing, Michigan, before becoming a full-time author of young adult books.

He finally started college at the University of Michigan on a part-time basis, graduating in 1996. During that time, he started writing stories and won the University's Hopwood prize for a rough draft of The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963. Confident of his ability, Curtis's wife and family encouraged him to take a year off work and see what...