Elijah of Buxton

Elijah of Buxton is the story of a settlement of former slaves and a "fra-gile" young boy named Elijah. Elijah is a young man who follows the rules of the settlement by helping others and going beyond what is asked of him. He struggles with the idea that he is not accepted as an adult because he is young, cries all the time, and once threw up on Fredrick Douglas. As the first free-born child in Buxton, Elijah is on the path to greatness by learning to read and write. If only he can get people, mainly his mother and father, in the settlement to accept him as an adult.

To me, I missed the plot of the book for a very long time. However, Curtis is front loading his readers so that they understand the culture of Buxton and the restrictions that freed slaves in Canada might face. When the story truley starts, Elijah of Buxton is nearly impossible to put down. Elijah leaves Buxton and the saftey of Canada with his friend Mr. Leroy in search of the reverand who stole Mr. Leroy's money that was supposed to be used to free the Leroy family from slavery down south. Needless to say, things go terribly wrong while Mr. Leroy and Elijah are in America. However, Elijah finds his way into adulthood by the end of the book.

Elijah of Buxton is the winner of a large number of awards, including the Coretta Scott King Award, the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, and the Canadian Library Association's Book of the Year Award. Elijah of Buxton was also a Newbery Honor Book, an American Library Association Notable Book, and a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award. Other books by Christopher Paul Curtis include The Watsons go to Birmingham-- 1963, Bud, Not Buddy, Bucking the Sage, Mr. Chickee's Funny Money, and Mr. Chickee's Messy Mission.

Reading Elijah of Buxton should play an important role in any child's education. Students could enrich their learning by writing a short scene from the book. The use of dialogue will be dramatically important to student learning. Students will learn about the importance of education and should discuss why freed adult slaves might have had such difficulty learning to read and write. Also, students could create their own photo album with descriptions of important people, places, and objects in the fictional Buxton that Curtis created.

In the "Author's Note," Curtis encourages readers to visit "an interesting, beautiful, hope-filled place the Elgin Settlement and Buxton Misson of Raleigh." He also states that "Buxton is an inspiration, and its importance in both American and Canadian history deserves to be much recognized." In a stared review from Booklist, Carolyn Phelan states that "Narrator Elijah tells an episodic story that builds a broad picture of Buxton's residents before plunging into the dramatic events that take him out of Buxton and, quite possibly, out of his depth."

In Elijah of Buxton, Curtis uses characters, plot, setting, the theme of coming of age in a difficult time, and unique style most noticable through dialogue to develop a historically accurate and emotionally striking story.