Elijah Of Buxton
Scholastic, 2007
Historical Fiction
ISBN: 0439023440
352 pages
Newbery Honor Book
Coretta Scott King Award Winner
Synopsis
Told from the 1st person perspective of a boy named Elijah about his life and hometown, Buxton, the narrative moves from chapter to chapter, giving Elijah’s point of view on various stories involving he and other characters. Just north of the border in Canada, Buxton is a community for runaway slaves set during the times of late American slavery and the Underground Railroad. Starting just before Elijah was born, Buxton has become a thriving community with a school where the kids learn arithmetic, reading and writing, and even Greek and Latin.
Elijah was the first free baby born in the community. Now eleven, he tells stories of his life in Buxton, and about the community of former slaves that weave a strong network around him. One such story involves helping an older friend track down a thief in America who has taken the money he had been saving to buy his family back out of slavery. Here the journey becomes more perilous than they would have imagined, and Elijah experiences the awful tragedy of American slavery through the eyes of recently captured runaways.
Critique
Given the style and time period in which the novel is set, the writing captures a similar tone and plot flow as a Willa Cather or Mark Twain, and Elijah is easily as entertaining a character as Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn. Also, rather than relying on the classic plot styles of comedy or tragedy, with the typical beginning, middle, and end—the conflict heightening throughout the text and resolving near the conclusion—Curtis creates a series of loosely conjoined smaller stories with lesser, individual conflicts and resolutions. Similar to My Antonia, the plot seems more like a river than a mountain, winding slowly back and forth throughout the narrative. This is perfect for the style and subject matter given that it’s supposed to be a series of average stories in the life of a boy living in the historical township of Buxton during a time period rife with turmoil, especially for recently freed slaves.
Not only is this a great historical piece, with Curtis obviously doing his homework to represent the language, setting, characters and subplots accurately, but it’s a potent social commentary regarding racism in America. The stories are entertaining as well as well written and the language is beautiful. Curtis’s ability to pull the reader into the text, creating empathies for the characters, and through their eyes, all of the slaves throughout America is astounding. This piece has the capability to be life changing for kids and adults alike, and I recommend it to anyone 9+.
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For the Classroom
Even though this is historical fiction, the history is accurate and comes alive to the reader in a way that no textbook will. Elijah of Buxton is a great classroom companion for studies on American history during the early to mid 19th century, American slavery, and the Civil War.
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