Book Review Elijah of Buxton

 

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Curtis, C. P. (2009). Elijah of Buxton. Scholastic Press.

ISBN: 0439023459

2.  PLOT SUMMARY

In his historical fiction novel, Elijah is a young 11 year old boy who lives in Buxton, Canada, a place for runaway slaves. In this story about courage, heroism, and bravery, Elijah must track down a former slave who steels money from one of his friends. As the plot thickens, Elijah makes a difficult journey to America to help one of his Mr. Leroy free his children.

3.CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Written from Elijah’s perspective, Curtis does an amazing of introducing all the characters in this novel. His character descriptions and the way the author established the setting, definitely engages readers to keep flipping through each page. This book brought out different emotions from start to finish! From literally laughing out loud in the beginning as I read about Elijah’s fishing tales, to getting emotional when the author touched on the realities of slavery during this time period. Additionally, Curtis does a great job of developing Elijah’s character. He is so likable, the more I read, the more I really like him. I must admit, I was reluctant to read this novel at first, because I don’t like reading books related to slavery, but I am glad I read it!

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Newbery Honor Book

Coretta Scott King Award

Starred review in Kirkus Reviews “many readers, young and old, will finish and say, “This is one of the best books I have ever read.”

Starred review in Booklist: “drawn to the book by humor will find themselves, at times, on the edges of their seats in suspense”

Starred review in Horn Book: “surprising novel of reluctant heroism is about nothing less than nobility."

5. CONNECTIONS

*Have students create a KWL chart about slavery. Have them share what they know about this topic, and what they would like to learn more about.   

* Have students write a narrative detailing whether or not they leave everything they know to make a difficult journey to another country to help a friend. Have students share their finished narratives with the class.

*Other books by Christopher Paul Curtis

Curtis, C. P. (2002). Bud, not buddy. Yearling. ISBN: 0440413281

Curtis, C. P. (2013). The mighty miss Malone. Yearling. ISBN: 0440422140

Review completed for SHSU MLA course. 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars

Image
  1. BIBLIOGRAPHY Green, J. (2014). The fault in our stars. Penguin Random House Australia. ISBN: 014242417X 2.  PLOT SUMMARY This novel is written from the perspective of a 16-year-old girl, Hazel, who is diagnosed with cancer. At the beginning of the story we learn that Hazel suffers from depression because of her cancer and her parents force her to join a support group.  This is where she meets Augustus, a 17-year-old boy who is in remission and attends the meeting in support of his friend Isaac, who also has cancer. Hazel and Augustus begin to develop a strong bond and during a trip to Amsterdam both teenagers confess their love for one and other. Shortly after the trip, Augustus tells Hazel that his cancer has returned and as his health worsens. He is then admitted to the hospital where he later dies. 3.CRITICAL ANALYSIS Well, where to start…to be honest this was not one of my top choices when deciding on which novel to read. I obviously knew what the story was about to some exten
Read more

Book Review: The Llama who had no Pajamas

Image
  1.      BIBLIOGRAPHY Hoberman, M. A., & Fraser, B. (2006). The Llama who had no pajama: 100 favorite poems. Harcourt Brace & Co. ISBM: 0152055711 2.  PLOT SUMMARY This cute book is a poetry collection with one hundred different poems for young children. These poems center around different activities and animals that children can relate to daily. This entire collection of short poems engages young readers through repetitions, tongue twisters, and rhymes. 3.      CRITICAL ANALYSIS After reading the different poems in this book, I thought some poems were silly but cute. Each poem is unique written, catchy, and plays with words.  Hoberman uses a lot of different types of figurative language like repetition, alliteration, and sensory language to engage young readers. As I read through Rabbit , I was quickly reminded Mother’s Goose’s Itsy-Bitsy Spider . As I read through some of the poems, I found myself singing some of the verses. One of my favorite poems in this collection wa
Read more

Book Review: The Book Thief

Image
  1. BIBLIOGRAPHY Zusak, M. (2005). The book thief . Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN: 0375842209 2.  PLOT SUMMARY Narrated by death, this book tells the story or a young foster girl, Liesel Meminger is surrounded by death. As we learn throughout the story, everyone she loves and builds relationships with end up dying. This novel also shares Liesel’s character development as a 10-year-old who steals books but is unable to read at first. As time goes on, and with the help of her foster dad, she learns to read and comprehend her surroundings, which happen to be during World War II.  As the story continues, readers see how Liesel finds comfort in these books in the words she reads. 3.CRITICAL ANALYSIS This book was such an interesting read. There were so many themes present throughout the story that engaged readers and had them flipping through each page. I though Zusak was a total genius for having death narrating this novel. What I found the most interesting about this story was how deat
Read more