Christopher Paul Curtis

You Must Be A Genius!
(Story by Tiffany M. Johnson)

“You must be a genius!” author Christopher Paul Curtis was told when he visited students in grades 5-8 at Henderson Elementary and Randolph Magnet on Thursday, September 27th.

Born in Flint, Michigan, Mr. Curtis spent his years after high school working on an assembly line in Flint’s historic Fisher Body Plant. It wasn’t until his 13th year at the plant that he discovered he wanted more. Picking up a book one day while taking a break from hanging car doors onto Buicks, Mr. Curtis grew increasingly certain that he could produce better writing than what he was reading. Before long, Mr. Curtis was using his breaks to hone his writing skills – this was the start of his new career.

Mr. Curtis made an outstanding debut in children’s literature with his first book, The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963, which received a Newberry Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor in 1996. His second novel, Bud, Not Buddy, released in 2000, is the first book to receive both the Newberry Medal and the Coretta Scott King Author Award. His most recent book, Elijah of Buxton, tells of a young boy’s life, his worries, and his adventures.

At the close of his visit, Mr. Curtis left students with a valuable lesson when he reminded them, “You have to follow your dreams. A lot of people will try to talk you out of them. That is why you have to find something that you like and are good at, and keep working at it to improve upon it. The most important things that you are going to learn while you are in school are reading and writing. If you can read and write, you can do anything.”