Christopher Paul Curtis was born and raised in Flint, Michigan. The second of five children, Christopher always loved reading, but as a child he didn’t find many books that, as he says, “were about me.” After graduating from high school, he took a summer job hanging car doors on the assembly line at Fisher Body Flint Plant No. 1, figuring he’d make some good money before starting college at the University of Michigan-Flint in the fall. It turned out that the money was too good to walk away from, and Christopher’s summer job ended up lasting thirteen years! While the experience left him with a lifelong aversion to getting in and out of large automobiles, it also gave him a chance to do something that would eventually change his life — to write. He and his work partner came up with a plan: Instead of taking alternate turns putting the doors on Buicks as they rolled down the assembly line, each of them would hang all the doors for thirty minutes straight, giving the other a half-hour break. Christopher took the opportunity to write in his journal. Though he hated working in the factory, writing allowed him to forget where he was, for thirty minutes at a time.
While working at Fisher Body, Christopher continued taking classes at night. He was supposed to be studying political science, but he found himself drawn toward writing fiction. A few years after leaving his job at the plant, Christopher took a year off to write a book. He spent his days at the children’s room of the Windsor Public Library in Windsor, Ontario, writing this new story out by hand. In many ways, Christopher’s writing became a family affair, with his son, Steven, typing up his drafts on the computer, and his daughter, Cydney, and his niece, Hara, adding musical and editorial comments. Steven was the very first person to read about ten-year-old Kenny Watson’s family road trip to Alabama — the story that became The Watsons Go to Birmingham — 1963, Christopher’s first book.
Christopher submitted The Watsons to the Delacorte Press First Young Adult Novel Contest. The story didn’t win the prize, but Delacorte decided to publish it anyway. The Watsons Go to Birmingham — 1963 went on to receive a Newbery Honor and a Coretta Scott King Honor, and its success finally allowed Christopher to consider writing as a full-time career. Christopher’s second novel, Bud, Not Buddy, was inspired in part by his grandfathers, Earl “Lefty” Lewis, a pitcher in the Negro Baseball Leagues, and Herman E. Curtis, bandleader of the Dusky Devastators of the Depression. In 2000, it was awarded the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Author Award, among many other honors and accolades. Christopher’s other novels include the Golden Kite Award-winning Bucking the Sarge, Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money, Mr. Chickee’s Messy Mission, and this book.
When he is not writing, Christopher enjoys playing basketball and collecting old record albums. To learn more about him, visit him online at www.nobodybutcurtis.com.