Elijah Of Buxton review

A Great Book By Christopher Paul Curtis

Set in the somewhat Utopian town of Buxton, across the Canadian border, the final stop on the Underground Railroad. As the first freeborn baby in the settlement Elijah has never known the horrors of slavery. His few complaints include being known as the kid that puked in Fredric Douglass' face, and everyone seeing him as “fra-gile”. Even though he is only 11, he works hard at all the chores he has to do, just like everyone else that lives in town. There are a few rascals that live just outside the town that don't exactly pull their weight, but for the most part everyone follows the rules and works very hard at making Buxton a good community. The kid has a LOT of chores, chores I wouldn't dream of leaving my 10 year old in charge of doing. He helps in the communal stable, he helps a handyman, he even has to ride into the neighboring town on a mule (ok, he could ride a horse, but mules are better and he explains why) to collect the town's mail if it doesn't come in for a while. All that on top of going to school every day and studying subjects like Latin and Greek.  My kids would complain all the time about how they have to do everything, but Elijah enjoys it. Okay, so he doesn't enjoy all the schoolin', but he never complains about the chores.

One of them rascals I mentioned earlier is the Right Reverend Deacon Doctor Zephariah Connerly the Third, whom folks just call “Preacher”, even though he really isn't one. Never did quite figure out why he calls himself a Deacon, a Reverend and a Doctor, because from what I read, he isn't qualified to claim any of those. He manages to lead Elijah astray a few times, and makes a great Antagonist in the story.

It's all written from the kid's point of view, and it's written in his language. It's basically like I write when my spell check is broken. I found myself reading in my head in an even thicker Southern Drawl than usual, but I never had to struggle with a word. Those of you used to Proper English might find it a little tough. Your Early Reader might do okay though, since most of the big words are spelled phonetically, just like they'd write it. It won the Newbery Honor Book Award, and the Coretta Scott King Award, and I can see why.

Now, for being a book for little kids, this book deals with some harsh shit. Slavery is a central theme, and Elijah finally realizes that it isn't just some abstract thing that only happened to strangers, it's something all of the adults in town went through, and it wasn't fun. Many of the adults are still trying to get their families out of that Hell. The first half of the book, Elijah is a blind innocent, the second half he's growing up and realizing how much horrible crap there is in the world, and that not everyone gets a happy ending.

I'd recommend this book for everyone. If your kid is a whiner, you really need to read this to them/with them and point out that while Elijah is fiction, Buxton, Slavery and Assholes did exist. Maybe slip in some lessons about how there are still assholes who buy and sell humans and treat people like dirt for stupid reasons like skin color. If you yourself tend to be all whiney about how hard you have it you need to read it and realize that as bad as your life sucks, you ain't ever had to work your ass off to buy a family member from an asshole, then died before you could get it done.


/ [hanhepi]

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