ELIJAH OF BUXTON

by Christopher Paul Curtis
ISBN: 9780439023450

Bibliography:
Curtis, Christopher Paul. 2007. Elijah of Buxton. New York: Scholastic Press.

Plot:
This story is told from the perspective of eleven-year-old Elijah, who was the first child born into freedom in a settlement for runaway slaves in Buxton, Canada. Throughout the story, Elijah experiences many adventures, some of which are silly and playful and others that are completely heart-wrenching. Elijah travels to the dangerous land of America in order to help a former slave, Leroy, find the man that stole the money that was meant to free his enslaved family. When everything goes wrong, Elijah is forced to make grown-up decisions that indeed change him forever.

Analysis:
Curtis masterfully develops vivid, rich characters that are multifaceted. Each character is portrayed with a layer of pain and sadness that is just below the surface. Curtis helps the reader to understand and relate to this pain even though the reader has never experienced slavery firsthand. Readers will also relate to the importance of family and the pain of being separated from loved ones.

Curtis uses the dialect of the characters to pull the reader into the time and place of the story. The following quote describes a heart-wrenching moment when Elijah meets Chloe, a recaptured slave who is chained up with her husband, her baby, and three other slaves. When Elijah explains that he was born free in Buxton, Chloe says, "You cain't know it, but you's the shiniest thing what we's seen in a long, long, long time. Seeing you's the next best thing to seeing Canada. Seeing you shows me that the whole thang ain't no dream."

Review Excerpts:
Booklist: “Readers learn about conditions in slavery at a distance, though the horrors become increasingly apparent. Among the more memorable scenes are those in which Elijah meets escaped slaves—first, those who have made it to Canada and, later, those who have been retaken by slave catchers. Central to the story, these scenes show an emotional range and a subtlety unusual in children’s fiction. Many readers drawn to the book by humor will find themselves at times on the edges of their seats in suspense and, at other moments, moved to tears.”

Kirkus Review: Eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman is known for two things: being the first child born free in Buxton, Canada, and throwing up on the great Frederick Douglass. It's 1859, in Buxton, a settlement for slaves making it to freedom in Canada, a setting so thoroughly evoked, with characters so real, that readers will live the story, not just read it. This is not a zip-ahead-and-see-what-happens-next novel. It's for settling into and savoring the rich, masterful storytelling, for getting to know Elijah, Cooter and the Preacher, for laughing at stories of hoop snakes, toady-frogs and fish-head chunking and crying when Leroy finally gets money to buy back his wife and children, but has the money stolen. Then Elijah journeys to America and risks his life to do what's right. This is Curtis's best novel yet, and no doubt many readers, young and old, will finish and say, "This is one of the best books I have ever read."

Connections:
* The following websites offers many resources for teaching elementary, middle school, and high school students about slavery:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/teachers/lesson4.html
http://www.history.org/History/teaching/attitude.cfm
http://www.middleweb.com/Amistad.html