Byron gets his lips stuck to the frozen car mirror after kissing his own reflection outside in the cold.

A new student named Rufus from Arkansas befriends Kenny, giving Kenny his first genuine friendship at Clark Elementary.

Byron tracks down Larry Dunn, forces him to return Kenny's stolen gloves, and subjects Larry to a brutal physical confrontation.

Momma smells burning matches, breaks open the locked bathroom door, and drags Byron downstairs to face punishment.

Joey rushes in and blows out Momma's lit match four times in a row, repeatedly saving Byron from being burned.

Byron comes home with his hair straightened and dyed in a conk, and Dad shaves his head completely as punishment.

Momma and Dad call Grandma Sands in Alabama and privately arrange for Byron to stay with her.

Dad brings home the Ultra-Glide drive-around record player, and Momma uses the occasion to announce the family's trip to Birmingham.

The Watson family departs Flint for Birmingham in the newly prepared Brown Bomber, with Kenny and Joey cheering about motels and burgers.

The family drives through the dark, towering Appalachian Mountains during the night, with the shadowy peaks frightening everyone in the car.

The Watsons arrive in Birmingham and Kenny is completely shocked to find Grandma Sands tiny, frail, and physically unimposing.

Kenny falls into the whirlpool at Collier's Landing and is pulled under repeatedly until Byron jumps in and drags him to shore.

A bomb explodes at the church where Joey went for Sunday school with Grandma's neighbors, sending the whole neighborhood into chaos.

Joey arrives at Grandma Sands's house unharmed, explaining she had left church after spotting someone across the street she thought was Kenny.

Byron convinces Kenny that his very existence saved Joey's life, and Kenny realizes that magic lives in the love of family.

The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 opens with the Watson family struggling through a freezing Michigan winter, quickly establishing Byron's pattern of reckless misbehavior. Each incident — from teasing to fighting to playing with matches — builds toward the turning point when Byron's unauthorized haircut pushes Momma and Dad to arrange a summer stay with strict Grandma Sands in Alabama. The road trip south brings unexpected wonder and danger, culminating in Kenny's near-drowning at Collier's Landing and the devastating church bombing that nearly claims Joey's life. After returning to Flint in shock, Kenny retreats emotionally until Byron coaxes him back with a crucial truth about who really saved Joey. Kenny ultimately discovers that the love binding his family together is the most powerful magic in the world.

The Watsons' biggest moments from Flint to Birmingham and back.

The Watson family huddles together under one blanket on the couch in coats during a complete heating failure on a freezing Saturday.

Dad fails to reach the landlord about the lack of heat and announces the family will spend the night at Aunt Cydney's.

Byron skips school with Buphead and tells Kenny "Give my regards to Clark, Poindexter" at the bus stop before walking away.

Byron stops Joey's complaints about winter layers by telling her that thin-blooded Southerners freeze solid and get collected in garbage trucks.

Kenny secretly gives Rufus one of his own gloves after Rufus loses his pair, then tells Momma he lost his own first pair.

Byron accidentally kills a bird by throwing a cookie at it and secretly builds a popsicle-stick cross grave marker at the scene.

The night before departure, Joey reveals Byron's plan to run away to their parents, hoping to keep him from getting in further trouble.

Momma shows the family her trip planning notebook labeled "The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963," with every rest stop and sandwich break mapped out.

The family stops at an outhouse-only rest stop near Toledo and tries to drink metallic-tasting grape Kool-Aid mixed from pump water.

The Ultra-Glide gets stuck repeating one song line during the overnight drive, and Dad asks Kenny to keep the malfunction secret from Momma.

Byron is immediately polite, deferential, and cheerful with Grandma Sands upon arrival, deeply disappointing Kenny who had expected a dramatic clash.

Momma and Grandma Sands catch up inside while mentioning that some white people are causing trouble for Black residents in the area.

Kenny and Byron silently agree not to tell anyone about Kenny's near-drowning at Collier's Landing; Kenny still feels weak and shaky from it.

Kenny follows the stream of frightened people rushing toward the bombed church, where he sees Byron, Momma, and Dad ahead in the crowd.

The Watson family leaves Birmingham that same night of the bombing and collectively agrees to never tell Joey what happened at the church.

The secondary layer of the novel fills in the richness of the Watson family's daily life, from their cramped and loving home routines in Flint to the texture of the road trip south. Small moments — a heating failure, a skipped school day, a secret shared on the road — reveal how tightly bound and warmly comic the Watsons are even before the serious events in Birmingham begin. The road trip scenes show a family navigating unexpected stops, mountain darkness, and Dad's secret plan to drive straight through, all while Momma's careful notebook plans slowly unravel. Upon arrival, Kenny discovers that Byron fits naturally into Birmingham life, and quiet conversations between Momma and Grandma Sands hint at the racial tensions the family has tried to ignore. The bombing shatters that calm, and the family's swift, silent departure home marks the end of their innocence about the world outside Flint.

The family moments and road trip details that shaped the Watsons' journey.

Kenny's teacher Miss Henry takes him to read aloud in Byron's fifth-grade class; Byron later tells Buphead to leave Kenny alone.

LJ tricks Kenny into believing their buried plastic dinosaurs are safe in a pit, then returns later to steal them all.

Rufus refuses to be friends with Kenny after Kenny laughs along with other students mocking Rufus's shared, worn-out clothing on the bus.

Larry Dunn steals Kenny's second pair of rabbit-fur gloves and covers them in black shoe polish to disguise them.

Kenny spies through the bathroom keyhole and watches Byron pretend-direct burning toilet-paper parachutists dropping into the toilet in his secret movie.

Byron signs his parents' store credit for unapproved Swedish Cremes and shares the stolen cookies with Kenny in the alley behind Mitchell's.

Kenny overhears Dad asking neighbor Mr. Johnson before the trip whether the Brown Bomber can handle driving straight through without an overnight stop.

The morning before departure, Dad sits alone in the Brown Bomber and explains to Kenny why Byron needs to experience the South.

Mr. Robert tells Byron and Dad the story of jumping into a lake to drag his drowning hunting dog Toddy to shore and revive him.

Byron tells Kenny and Joey that the Wool Pooh is Winnie the Pooh's evil underwater twin who drags foolish children down to drown.

Kenny enters the church rubble alone and struggles to free a girl's shoe from the debris, convinced the Wool Pooh is pulling it back.

Kenny sees two small girls laid down near the bombing site while adults' hands flutter helplessly over them, unable to land.

Kenny realizes Joey is truly alive when she enters Grandma's house with both shoes on and asks why Kenny is acting so strangely.

Back in Flint, Byron discovers Kenny hiding behind the couch and begins sleeping there himself, slowly coaxing Kenny to eat and watch TV.

Kenny cries at his own reflection in the bathroom mirror and confesses his guilt to Byron, who stays beside him through the whole breakdown.

Beneath the comic surface of the Watsons' family life runs a series of quiet revelations that steadily reshape both Kenny and Byron. Kenny learns the cost of false friendships through LJ's dinosaur theft, the value of genuine loyalty through his bond with Rufus, and the limits of his own courage through his choices at Collier's Landing. Byron, meanwhile, surprises everyone with hidden depths — a conscience capable of grief over a dead bird, a respect for elders he never showed in Flint, and a fierce love for his brother he only reveals under pressure. The church bombing forces both brothers to confront evil that has no childhood analogy or easy explanation. In the aftermath, Byron's patient coaxing and hard truths in a cramped bathroom become the turning point that finally draws Kenny back from despair into the world of the living.