Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
Eleven-year-old Elijah lives in Buxton, Canada, a settlement of runaway slaves near the American border. He's the first child in town to be born free, and he ought to be famous just for that. Unfortunately, all that most people see is a "fra-gile" boy who's scared of snakes and talks too much. But everything changes when a former slave steals money from Elijah's friend, who has been saving to buy his family out of captivity in the South. Now it's up to Elijah to track down the thief--and his dangerous journey just might make a hero out of him, if only he can find the courage to get back home.
Comments
-Conner C.
When I started to read this book last weekend, I was worried I'd hate it because of what I had heard from Luke and Britt. But I have to tell you -- I really liked it!
It starts out slowly, and as Henry pointed out, there is a LOT of character development. They don't get to the real problem until 2/3rds of the way in -- but then it gets exciting. I actually was crying in the last ten pages -- It seemed very realistic and HORRIBLE. Maybe because I'm a mom. (Those of you who read it will know what I mean. ) And what made it even worse is that this exact sort of thing REALLY DID HAPPEN in the 1700s & 1800s (shuddering). Pretty sick.
One thing that may be hard for some of you is that you have to "translate" the dialect -- Many of the characters are former slaves and do not speak formal register English. However, that made it realistic.
I don't know about you guys, but I learned a lot from this book.