A review by kricketa
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

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.