Background

Byron and his brother (the narrator) don’t get along real well. Byron is the oldest and tends to be very mean.

Excerpt from The Watson’s Go to Birmingham

                After my arm quit hurting from his punch I went back to the alley behind Mitchell’s to take another look at the dead bird but it was gone. Right in the spot where the bird had crashed By had dug a little grave, and on top of the grave there were two Popsicle sticks tied together in a cross.

                Leave it to Daddy Cool to kill a bird, then give it a funeral. Leave it to Daddy Cool to torture human kids at school all day long and never has his conscience bother him but to feel sorry for a stupid little grayish brown bird.

                I don’t know, I really wished I was as smart as some people thought I was, ‘cause some of the time it was real hard to understand what was going on with Byron.