Reviews

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

lanica's review against another edition

4.0

It takes a little while to get used to the flow of the language, but the story is worth the effort. It starts off pretty slow, but picks up quickly and ends with all the tension and drama a reader could ask for. Another top notch novel from My Curtis.

emilybriano's review against another edition

5.0

http://www.buxtonmuseum.com/

makennarg's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

It was pretty good, a lot deeper for a children’s book. I had to read it for school.

kricketa's review against another edition

3.0

elijah is the first free-born resident of the settlement of buxton, canada, populated with slaves who escaped from the U.S. buxton is a welcoming and well-run community and elijah enjoys an idyllic childhood of local celebrity, fishing, education, and helping with chores all around the settlement. he frequently helps mr. leroy, who is working hard to raise the money to buy the rest of his family, who are still down south. he finally raises the money, but it is stolen. elijah goes with mr. leroy to the united states, where they try to track down the money and elijah learns some important lessons about the freedom he may have taken for granted.

i found the book's beginning to be slow and a bit overly cute. i kept going, though, because it is our book club's september pick, and also because i met mr. curtis and heard him give a quite a rousing speech this past april.

once i was about 100 pages in (and normally i would give up before this point) i was really wrapped up in the plot, and toward the end i could see why the book starts with light, seemingly unimportant anecdotes. by the last chapter i was a wreck-- it was amazing. i just wish it hadn't taken so long to get there.

anywho2's review against another edition

2.0

I have mixed feelings about this novel. The first two thirds of the novel were slow. I understand the moves being made to set the action in the last third of the novel – an understanding of the preacher’s motives, introduction of Elijah’s conflicts, etc. But, setting up the plot should not take two thirds of the novel. Until the chapter where Mr. Leroy charges the preacher with taking his money to free his, Mr. Leroy’s, wife and children the majority of the novel is composed of anecdotes or vignettes. These are important moments of characterization, but also the bulk of them are unnecessary. The novel could have easily started with the circus adventure or at another point and still had similar results. I guess my main problem is the novel felt unbalanced. I think too, that in part the marketing of the novel is misleading. The summary on the back of the book focuses exclusively on the event that occurs in the last hundred or so pages of the book. My frustration with Elijah was secondary to the writing of the novel itself. Elijah is likeable enough, and, I’ll admit, is well written, but his naivete wasn’t entirely believable at times given the stories he is constantly being heard recounted. Or, the encounters he has with others. Or, even, how he is able to apply his schooling. It is convenient for the plot certainly. However, there is the possibility the irony of the reader’s knowledge versus Elijah’s was purposely crafted. It’s likely this is the case, but I didn’t like it.

hldillon's review against another edition

5.0

Enjoyable novel about Elijah of Buxton growing up as a free citizen in Canada. He soon learns a valuable lesson about trusting people and slavery when people's lives are depending on his responses.

libbydmccarthy's review against another edition

5.0

So great! I can see why the Newberry award. I think I especially enjoyed the southern talk because it reminded me of my time in Mississippi. I love how Elijah has such simple ways of explaining tricky social norms and other more complicated ideas.

I thought Curtis do a great job of getting you to sympathize with characters I have little in common with.

Nice that it was such a quick read too.

raquel_reading_stuff's review against another edition

1.0

If you want to read some dreary, gruesome, distasteful, boring, and eerie historical fiction, go right ahead and read this book. The award it has won only makes the book heavier.

What can I say about this book except that it's not for younger kids. Why? Here's a nice list:

1. To put it bluntly, gross. Long descriptions of horsefly guts and distasteful scenes, etc.
2. BORING and LONG. No, it's not a long book, and that should tell you something about my word choice: I say long because the author goes into such detail about useless and uninteresting things (see 1) that it makes reading the book take forever and very unenjoyable
3. NOT FUN. Historical fiction? Yes. Morals and whatnot? Most likely. Fun to read? No. No way. Not at all.

This is the kind of book you can only enjoy perhaps once you've studied history or have actual context for the story... like about the Civil War or slaves escaping to Canada, so on and so forth. I was young when it was read to me, so I knew nothing except that it was gross, boring, and not fun.

Teachers, please do not force this book on children. I'm quite sure I never learned anything from it. I learned a lot more from Uncle Tom's Cabin, and that wasn't half as distasteful to me. This book really has no redeeming qualities for me, and I wish my teacher could have read something else to me back then.

a_manning11's review against another edition

5.0

It took me a while to get into this book. Elijah is a typical boy, and the detailed descriptions of misbehavings, fishing and other endeavors didn't grip me right off. But Elijah is also an important boy, the first free-born African American in Buxton, Canada. Elijah is often scared, but he makes up for it by being very clever, as well.
When Elijah has to cross the border to America to retrieve money that was meant to free a slave family, he has to use his brains, and be brave.

dctigue's review against another edition

4.0

I love Bud, Not Buddy, so I had to try this one.

Some parts of this book, lost me. I felt like it skipped around a little. That is why I gave it 4 stars.