Elijah of Buxton

I was told at TLA that Christopher Paul Curtis said this is his favorite book. For a person who loved Bud Not Buddy like me, I couldn't see how this could be. Having read Elijah, I would say I still like Bud Not Buddy a little more, but this is a worthy sibling.

Elijah is the first child born free in Canada to former American slaves. Buxton is a real town in Canada that was founded by a Presbyterian minister in the 1800's as a refuge for American slaves and as a place to make a brand new, wonderful start.

This was a novel of great hope and terrible sadness. One of the last big scenes in the book, the scene that takes place in the barn, is a scene of heart-wrenching sadness and yet beautiful hopefulness. Newbery Honor.

I've read all of Curtis's books with my younger child, and this has to be the most evocative, heartbreaking, inspirational of them all. I love all of his books, but this one includes a scene so moving that I will never forget it.

Fiction and non-fiction about slavery isn't new or rare, and much of it feels like trauma porn after a while. This book is relatively unique in my experience, set in a (real life Canadian) colony founded by escaped enslaved people and their children born in freedom. Our hero Elijah is born in freedom in Canada, a rare narrator in children's literature.