Christopher Paul Curtis

This is an excellently written biography of one of my favorite authors, Christopher Paul Curtis, Newbery Medal winner for BUD, NOT BUDDY, and two-time Newbery Honor winner for THE WATSONS GO TO BIRMINGHAM - 1963 and ELIJAH OF BUXTON. Besides providing an in-depth history of Curtis's life, Levin also does an excellent job critiquing Curtis's books. The book is now not up-to-date, as can happen with biographies of living figures. At the back of the book is a excerpt (13 pages) of a longer interview of Curtis at his (now previous) home in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, done by four students (my four students) from Michigan who extensively read and researched Curtis, then visited him for an interview in his living room. Levin said our interview was the single best resource about Mr. Curtis in her extensive searching of information about him on the Internet - what an honor to be included in such a great biography of a great writer!