ELIJAH OF BUXTON

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Curtis, Christopher Paul. 2007. ELIJAH OF BUXTON. New York: Scholastic. ISBN 0439023110

2, PLOT SUMMARY
This story about the settlement in Buxton, Canada established for runaway slaves to live freely has as its narrator eleven –year-old Elijah Freeman, the first child born in the settlement. This lovable young boy loves to fish, is gifted with his stone-throwing, and is considered “fra-gile” by his mother due to his sensitivity.

Elijah and his best friend, Cooter, attend school where they learn to read and write, something the adults in Buxton have to learn, too. The Preacher, who is not a holy man, just knowledgeable, tries to use Elijah’s rock throwing prowess as entry into the life of the carnival. When he discovers a young black boy is being mistreated as a slave, the Preacher declines the carnival’s offer and whisks the boy off to freedom in Buxton. These two sides of the Preacher leave Elijah conflicted as to the true nature of this character, but in the end, the discovery is not what he expected.

Uncle Leroy, who is trying to earn enough money to back to the United States and buy his family, freeing them from slavery, is give a large amount of money after he helps Mrs. Colton, a woman recently widowed, make a memorial honoring her dead husband.
With this money, Uncle Leroy begins the steps towards freeing his family.

This turn of events leads to betrayal, robbery, murder, captured slaves, and freedom. Elijah learns about strength of character and honesty as he looks to justify Uncle Leroy’s trials and bring freedom to a newborn slave.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Christopher Curtis delivers an emotional story in which a young boy outshines most of the adults around him when it comes to the strength of his character. Elijah learns “you cain’t be timid ‘bout nothing you do, you got to go at it like you ‘specting good things to come out of it”, and he is still able to be sensitive and appreciative of the things around him.

The setting is realistic from the Liberty Bell which is rung twenty times ‘ten time to ring out their old lives and ten more to ring in their new ones, their free lives” to the river at Detroit in which “one side of the river meant you were free and the other side meant you were a slave”. From the author’s notes we discover that Frederick Douglass did visit the Buxton Settlement and that it was started by Reverend King who was a white man. The dialect is true to the time (using afeared, toady-frogs, afore, kneelt as well as dropping the first vowel from some words such as “mongst for amongst and ‘bout for about).

Curtis delivers much humor (the misunderstanding that familiarity breeds contempt was really a family breeding contest) as well as moments that will stay with the reader long after the book has been finished (as Elijah leaves the four captured runaway slaves with his pistol while carrying away their “Hope”, knowing that he may have given them the means to end their own lives). This is one of the most incredible books I have ever read, and, in my opinion, truly deserving of the honors it has been awarded (such as the Newbery Honor Book Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, and the Scott O’Dell Award for historical fiction).


4. REVIEW EXCERPTS
2008 Coretta Scott King Award
Scott O’Dell Award
Newberry Honor Book
Booklist Starred Review

Booklist:”After his mother rebukes him for screaming that hoop snakes have invaded Buxton, gullible eleven-year-old Elijah confesses to readers that “there ain’t nothing in the world she wants more than for me to quit being so doggone fra-gile.” Inexperienced and prone to mistakes, yet kind, courageous, and understanding, Elijah has the distinction of being the first child born in the Buxton Settlement, which was founded in Ontario in 1849 as a haven for former slaves. 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 the author’s note, Curtis relates the difficulty of tackling the subject of slavery realistically through a child’s first-person perspective. Here, 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 make 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 the seats in suspense, and, at other moments, moved to tears. A fine, original novel from a gifted storyteller.”

Kirkus Reviews: “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 get 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.”

5. CONNECTIONS
Students can write more of Elijah’s story by telling what happened to Hope as she was raised in Buxton, Uncle Leroy’s family, the slaves in the horse stable waiting for the bounty hunters, and how the people of Buxton reacted to the deaths of Uncle Leroy and the Preacher.

The community of Buxton can be researched through the following website:
http://buxtonmuseum.com/
It even has information about the Liberty Bell, used to ring in the freedom of its new citizens.

Students could choose a famous person with connections to abolishing slavery or the Underground Railroad such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, John Brown, Sojourner Truth, Reverend William King, and Abraham Lincoln.

There could be a comparison done on those who fought for the freedom of slaves and those who fought for Civil Rights.

A discussion could take place using the topic “What would Harriet Tubman do and discuss if she met Rosa Parks?
Another topic could be what would Martin Luther King Jr. do and discuss if he met Frederick Douglass?