Book Review: Elijah of Buxton
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What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that, while not as graphic as some
books about slavery, this has its share of horrors, including
beating deaths (only the aftermath described), lynching, scars
from beatings and brandings, and adults and children shackled,
starved, and deprived of water.
Families who read this book could discuss Pa's statement about escaped slaves: "don't no one get out of America without paying some terrible cost, without having something bad done permanent to 'em, without having something cut off of 'em or burnt into 'em or et up inside of 'em." What does it mean? Do you think it was true? How is it shown in each of the characters in the book? Young readers may also be interested in finding out more about the real Buxton.
Common Sense Media Review
In Christopher Paul Curtis' award-winning debut,
The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963
, he firmly established the style that serves him so
brilliantly in ELIJAH OF BUXTON. This is another first-person
narrative, in vivid dialect, by a winningly naive child loaded
with personality. Both books have a delightfully funny first
half (some of the humor a bit off-color perhaps, but very true
to the narrator's age and personality), and a powerfully moving
historical event in the second half -- in this case it's
slavery -- made more powerful by the familiarity the reader has
with the characters it will impact.
In that appealing first half, the reader not only gets to know the characters, their personalities, values, and relationships, but also the utopian community they have consciously created. The settlement is a village of strangers with a common horror, in infinite variety, and determination in their backgrounds. They each understand the pain the others suffer, and have developed a careful politeness and a broad-shouldered support system out of that understanding. This care for one another has caused them to develop what Elijah calls "the secret language of being growned," which he doesn't understand until confronted with evil himself.
Despite one of the more hideous dust jackets in recent memory (you might want to remove the dust jacket before recommending it to a child), this wonderful, moving novel is sure to become a staple of discussion groups in schools and libraries across the country. Curtis' signal contribution to children's literature is his creation of novels that address important historical issues and events in an emotionally powerful, intellectually challenging, compassionate way, yet are simply rollicking good fun as well.
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