Genre 5- Elijah of Buxton

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

ISBN 13: 978-0-545-11084-6

PLOT SUMMARY

Elijah of Buxton is a story that gracefully explains how slavery affected the life of people in 1856 and how one little boy was very brave. Buxton was a ‘city’ in Canada that people could live freely on when ‘living free’ wasn’t heard of. Elijah was a very special boy because he was the first baby to be born free. Though Eli spends most of his time fearing the worse and being very ‘fra-gile’, he ends up becoming a very brave and strong young man.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Slavery is a difficult concept to explain to children. Christopher Paul Curtis does an amazing job of keep the students interested while also teaching them about major events in history. Curtis also written The Watson’s Go to Birmingham that also offers great historical value while also giving the readers characters they can relate to. When Elijah of Buxton begins, we meet a skittish, lighthearted kid but as the story goes on the reader begins to understand the heaviness of slavery. Several parts in the book are intense like when Eli meets slaves shackled in a barn, naked, two of them being a woman and her baby. Page 291 through298 the reader feels the intensity and sadness! Curtis uses dialect and descriptions that are very captivating. “He pressed his mouth there. It ripped at my insides something harsh. He was acting like giving him a drink of water waren’t no different than giving him a twenty-dollar gold piece. (p. 303) Curtis does it again in Elijah of Buxton- the reader gets to enjoy a beautifully written story about subject matter than is very difficult to understand. As a teacher I would recommend this for 4^th grade students and older. The content is a little harsh for students younger than 8.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Book List- “Curtis relates the difficulty of tackling the subject of slavery realistically through a child's first-person perspective… 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. A fine, original novel from a gifted storyteller.” —Carolyn Phelan

CONNECTIONS

As I mentioned previously, Christopher Paul Curtis has written several stories that delicately explain slavery and civil rights. An activity for older students could be to read both Elijah of Buxton and The Watsons Go to Birmingham and compare how the two stories present the same topic but at different times in history.