Christopher Paul Curtis (born May 10, 1953) is an American children's author and a Newbery Medal winner who wrote the The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 and the critically acclaimed Bud, Not Buddy. Bud, Not Buddy is the first novel to receive both the Coretta Scott King Award and the Newbery Medal. His newest book, entitled Elijah of Buxton, is set in a free Black community in Ontario that was founded in the 1849 by runaway slaves. Curtis was born in Flint, Michigan, the partial setting of many of his books. One such example is Bucking the Sarge, which is about a 15-year-old boy named Luther T. Ferrel, who is dissatisfied with growing up in that city. After school, Curtis worked for 13 years on a General Motors assembly line. His books Mr. Chickee's Funny Money and Mr. Chickee's Messy Mission are aimed at young children, ages five to six. Christopher Paul Curtis's favorite authors are Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut, and Zora Neale Hurston. He and his wife, Kaysandra (a native of Trinidad and Tobago) have two children, Steven and Cydney. They currently live in Windsor, Ontario.
