'Monster' by Walter Dean Myers, Illustrated by Christopher Myers

Myers, Walter Dean. Monster. Illus. Christopher Myers.  New York: HarperTeen, 1999.

There is a mirror over the steel sink in my cell.  It’s six inches high, and scratched with the names of some guys who were here before me.   When I look into the small rectangle, I see a face looking back at me but I don’t recognize it.  It doesn’t look like me.  I couldn’t have changed that much in a few months.  I wonder if I will look like myself when the trial is over (Myers 1-2).

This is our first introduction to Steve Harmon, a sixteen year-old boy on trial for murder in New York City.  Walter Dean Myers’ acclaimed novel, Monster, follows Steve through his trial, where he wrestles with the question of whether or not he is, as labeled by the prosecuting attorney, a monster.  At first glance, it seems as if Steve was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but flashbacks interspersed through the trial testimony, reveal small details that aren’t discussed in the trial, nor in the journal Steve keeps during the trial, a journal his lawyer admonishes him “not to write anything in… that [he does] not want the prosecutor to see” (Myers 137).  The small disparities between the journal entries and the testimony call into question Steve’s declared innocence and leads the reader to ponder the question: is he truly innocent of the crime or guilty?

Monster, the winner of the inaugural Printz Award, is a searing indictment of the justice system, the prison system, and the social structure that “links the credibility of males to displays and postures of toughness, physical strength, and the threat or use of violence” (Earp and Katz qtd. in Groenke, Maples, and Henderson 34).  The novel also questions the morality many of the prisoners employ in their ability to “separate themselves from their acts that permitted them to commit those acts in the first place” (Goodson 28).  Myers noticed a common thread in the stories he heard from various prisoners he interviewed as part of the research for Monster.  In an interview with Lori Atkins Goodson, he states,

I was shocked to find out how many of the inmates whose stories I was hearing were surprised to find themselves in prison… They uniformly thought of themselves as good people who had made some mistake, which had taken them afoul of the law… It was a common occurrence to find an interviewee speaking of himself… in the first person when talking about their upbringing, and then switching to the third person when speaking of the crime of which they had been convicted (28).

Myers states that it was this disconnect from their actions that formed the backbone of Monster  (Goodson 28).  Myers writes the novel as a hybrid of Steve’s journal entries and a screenplay that Steve also writes as the trial progresses. (Steve also happens to attend a magnet school where he studies filmmaking.)  The different formats represent Steve’s ability to separate himself from the scene of the crime.  The journal is written in first person, but the screenplay places Steve firmly in the third person, although it shows, in Steve’s words, his experience of the trial (Myers 4).  As Steve is the director, screenwriter, and star of his movie, he is able to shape the audience’s perception of the other members of his “cast” though the use of stage directions and camera angles or descriptions of the other cast members that focus on details, like Osvaldo’s gang tattoos (Schneider 20).    

This disconnect is also evident in the testimony of the witnesses called by the prosecution.  Many of them have been accused of crimes themselves, but have finagled a deal with the prosecution to exchange their testimony for a lighter sentence or a plea deal.  It is not always clear whether or not the witnesses are actually telling the truth, other than their testimony that claims they are.  The witnesses exemplify a central tenant of the novel: how do we know when someone is telling the truth?  Furthermore, the witnesses could very well be truthful, but their status as an inmate colors the reader’s (and jury’s) perceptions of their testimony.  Osvaldo, one of the prosecution’s witnesses, is timid and in fear of his life on the stand, but Steve’s flashback of an encounter with Osvaldo reveals a very different persona, one that scoffs at Steve for his reluctance to engage in the kind of lifestyle accepted by the other males in the neighborhood and has a confrontational attitude.

One of the other themes of the novel centers on the idea that all young men of color are the same in the eyes of a jury.  Kathy O’Brien, Steve’s lawyer, spends much of the trial attempting to make the jury see Steve as separate from his co-defendant, James King.  It is a task made more difficult by the fact that both Steve and James are African-American and “look like most of the other prisoners in the jail, so how is the jury to tell that he is any different from the unsavory witnesses and other defendants?” (Schneider 20). Steve even notes in more than one instance that his own lawyer is unsure of his guilt or innocence, perhaps subconsciously grouping Steve with James because of Steve’s race and a belief that a person will say or do anything to avoid a lengthy jail sentence.   

Part of Steve's journal
Photo by: L. Propes

Susan Groenke and Melissa Youngquist classify Monster as a postmodern novel due to Myers’ use of the following characteristics of postmodern literature: identity in flux as a theme, genre eclecticism, interplay between word and image, and active readers (506-507).  Steve’s identity is never settled during the novel, and even at the end, he is not able to definitively answer who he really is (Groenke and Youngquist 506).  Groenke and Youngquist characterize Steve as in a constant struggle to “understand who he is as an African American male, a star student, and a loving son and brother in a society that tells him he can only be one of two things: a thug or a sellout” (506).  As discussed earlier, the novel employs multiple formats to expose the reader to Steve and his personality.  The epistolary sections provide a glimpse into Steve’s inner thoughts and feelings, revealing his terror at the thought of spending the next twenty years behind bars.  The rest of the text of the novel employs a conventional screenplay format that serves to distance Steve in the journal from the Steve in the trial.  Flashbacks that show Steve in scenes with his family, James King (the other person on trial), and other people from his neighborhood provide a level of ambiguity that contributes to the questions of Steve’s innocence.  Christopher Myers’ illustrations show photographs of Steve in various places: the prison, the drugstore (presumably the day of the robbery and murder), and even a courtroom drawing of Steve and his attorney when his verdict is read.  The photographs, which are paired with relevant text, also aim to create an image of Steve that leads the reader to further question Steve’s motives and innocence (Groenke and Youngquist 507).  All of these elements combine together to force the reader to “fill in the gaps and pull together discrete parts or narrative strands” in order to come to a conclusion about Steve (Groenke and Youngquist 507). 

A page of screenplay format
Photo by: L. Propes

Myers comments in an essay at the end of the novel, “kids don’t think about things until after they happen… That’s typical of kids -- you do things first, then you think about it.  By the time you think about it, you’re in big trouble. I think the problem with so many young people is that violence gets to be a resource.  When nothing else works for you, violence always does, and you’re always drawn to it” (292).  Those fingerprints, so to speak, are all over Monster.  Steve does something (although it’s left ambiguous in the novel just what he does) that implicates him in the robbery and murder, but doesn’t think about the ramifications of where he was at that specific moment until well after the event and he’s sitting in jail.  At the end of the novel, Steve is still examining his actions.  The other characters -- Osvaldo, James, Bobo, and the other inmates in the prison -- personify the second part of Myers’ statement.  They have grown so accustomed to committing acts of violence and getting what they want out of it, that it’s become their go-to method of coping with life.  Steve comments on the level of violence within the prison in his journal: “Violence in here is always happening or just about ready to happen.  I think these guys like it -- they want it to be normal because that’s what they’re used to dealing with” (Myers 144). 

One of Christopher Myers'
illustrations
Photo by: L. Propes

Monster is an interesting novel that presents “kids that were not ‘good’, ‘smart’, and growing up in the perfect home” (Blumenstetter 39).  It gives students, especially minority students, a character who looks like them, their friends, or family members and shows a “world they live in every day” (Blumenstetter 39).  One level of difficulty students might have with it lies in the postmodern structure of the novel, as displayed in Groenke and Youngquist’s experience teaching Monster to a ninth-grade English class (508-510).  The novel is largely linear in its structure, but the flashbacks are not conspicuously set apart from the trial testimony, so it might be confusing to some readers to see an event that isn’t directly related to the trial in the middle of a trial. If students are not familiar with the structure of a screenplay or a script, they might have a bit of an adjustment period with the technical terminology Steve uses in the stage directions and camera angles.  There are small bits of dark humor scattered through Steve’s journal entries when the inmates discuss their cases.  One anecdote in particular exemplifies this in which a man who was charged with armed robbery, assault, and menacing, among other things, claims that because the jewelry store had an automatic locking system, he wasn’t able to actually steal anything and didn’t have a gun anyway, he shouldn’t be charged with a crime. The text is rich with bits and pieces like this that can instigate debate in a classroom apart from the main question of the novel.  Students who are fans of Law and Order marathons will probably love this book. 

Teachers who choose to offer Monster as either a whole-class reading or an option in a literature circle can have their students research statistics for the incarceration rates of minorities and the crimes for which they’ve been convicted.  They can also debate Steve’s guilt or innocence, using evidence gleaned from the novel.  Students can also present ideas to help students like Osvaldo before he becomes part of the system.  Some classes might need structured guidance to read this novel, given its unorthodox format. 

Monster not only won the Printz Award, it also won a Coretta Scott King honor and was a National Book Award finalist. 

If a teacher wants to compare the relative merits of the Printz winner and honor books from 2000, the honor books were: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Skellig by David Almond, and Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger. 

Myers is also the author of: Fallen Angels, Sunrise Over Fallujah, Scorpions, Slam!, Bad Boy, Autobiography Of My Dead Brother, Riot, and Darius & Twig, just to name a few.  For a complete list of his published works, please visit his website.  Myers is a prolific author of award-winning fiction and nonfiction.

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Works Cited

Blumenstetter, Kerri Gallagher. "Walter Dean Myers Writes for Inner-City Students." Social Science Docket 12.2 (2012): 39-40. Web. Education Research Complete. 16 June 2014.

Goodson, Lori Atkins. "Walter Dean Myers: A Monster of a Voice for Young Adults." The ALAN Review. 36.1 (2008): 26-31. Web. Free E-Journals. 16 June 2014.

Groenke, Susan L., Joellen Maples, and Jill Henderson. "Raising “Hot Topics” through Young Adult Literature." Voices from the Middle 17.4 (2010): 29-36. Web. National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). 16 June 2014.

Groenke, Susan Lee, and Michelle Youngquist. "Are we Postmodern Yet? Reading Monster with 21st-Century Ninth Graders." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 54.7 (2011): 505-13. Web. Education Research Complete. 16 June 2014.

Myers, Walter Dean. Monster. Ills. Christopher Myers. New York: HarperTeen, 1999. Print.

Schneider, Dean. "The Novel as Screenplay: Monster and Riot by Walter Dean Myers." Book Links 19.2 (2010): 20-3. Web. Academic Search Complete. 16 June 2014.

'Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry' by Mildred Taylor

Taylor, Mildred.  Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. New York: Puffin Books, 1976.

Photo by: L. Propes

The first African slaves arrived on American shores in 1619 at Jamestown in the Virginia colony.  The consequences of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and the Civil Rights era still reverberate to this day.  Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry stands at the crossroads of the aftermath of the Civil War and Reconstruction and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.  Set in 1933-1934, the 1977 Newberry Award winning novel details the life of the Logan family, as seen through the eyes of nine-year-old Cassie.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry begins as the four Logan children -- Stacey, Cassie, Christopher-John, and Little Man (Clayton Chester) -- are walking to school on the first day of the term.  From the beginning, Taylor uses her young protagonists to show the effects of segregation and the repressive laws and policies on African-American families in this community near Vicksburg.  Each new injustice slowly unfolds until the book climaxes with the arrest and attempted hanging of Stacey's friend T.J. for the murder of a store owner in the nearby town of Strawberry.  Taylor pulls no punches in showing the reader the rigidly segregated social structure.  The Logan children are forced to scramble out of the way of the school bus that takes the white children to their school while the driver barrels down the dirt road in a sadistic daily game of chicken.  The children in the school are given cast-off textbooks from the white school, which are not only tattered and out-of-date, but the condition of each book is noted in the front cover, along with the race of the recipient.  Little Man and Cassie object to the condition of the books and the fact they have received the books only because they're no longer useful to the white school.  The community is also on high alert because so-called "night riders" (most likely the KKK) recently dragged three men from their homes and set them on fire in retaliation for one of them purportedly flirting with a white woman.

The Great Depression has the Logan family and many of the other families of their community, both white and African-America, firmly in its grip.  Most of the other African-American families subsist by sharecropping cotton on the farms owned by white farmers, many of whom harbor not-so-secret desires to return to the social structure of the antebellum South.  The Logan family, however, owns two hundred acres of land, and are in the process of paying the mortgage on an additional two hundred acres.  Unlike most of their neighbors, the Logans are not beholden to a landowner for seed, tools, or land, and consequently are somewhat better off financially.  This also affords them the ability to find small ways to resist the deeply ingrained institutional racism of the community.  In spite of their slight economic advantages, the Logan family must still exercise great caution when it comes to their acts of rebellion, lest they pay for it by the loss of their land.

Over the course of the novel, the reader follows Cassie as she is exposed to more and more social and institutionalized racism.  Cassie and her brothers are quite isolated and "have been unusually sheltered from [racism's] stings" (Barker  124).  Taylor uses Cassie as a surrogate for children who may not have experienced the struggles that the Logans have, and under the guise of Cassie's naiveté, is able to illustrate some of the harsher aspects of pre-Civil Rights era Mississippi (Barker 124).  Cassie is understandably outraged by the effects of racism, and several family members attempt to persuade her to go along with it in an effort to protect her, "adding a sting of betrayal to her cruel experience" (Barker 124).  As the novel reaches its conclusion, Cassie is now painfully aware of why she and other members of the community must behave just so, and "although she does not understand racism, it is presently and will be in the future a significant part of her life" (Brooks and Hampton 88).

Taylor uses other characters, most notably David Logan (Cassie's father, and based on Taylor's paternal grandfather) and T.J. as archetypes from African and African-American folk tales to deepen Cassie's understanding of the world in which she resides (Brooks and Hampton 88).  Wanda Brooks and Gregory Hampton compare T.J. to "a trickster character... similar to Brer' Rabbit.  His primary function... is to act as the catalyst for trouble" (88).  T.J.'s myriad escapades -- from failing the previous school year to becoming involved with two much older boys from a neighboring white sharecropping family -- serve to provide the reader with a character who makes terrible and costly mistakes that demonstrate to Cassie the full force of the racism that envelops her family.  David represents the hero as depicted in African folklore (Barker 128).  The hero is "smaller and certainly less powerful, eventually triumph over their stronger and more powerful foes through sheer cunning and wit... they ponder, plan, and act -- sometimes quickly, sometimes deliberately -- and most often succeed in their endeavor" (Harper as qtd. in Barker 128).  During the climax of the novel, David chooses to act covertly to halt the lynching of a neighbor, rather than directly confront the men.

David and his brother Hammer also foreshadow the two factions of the future Civil Rights era: nonviolent civil disobedience and those who felt equality should come by any means necessary.  There are several instances in the novel where David feels compelled to physically strike back against the perpetrators of violence and/or humiliation against his family, he knows the result will likely be his death.  Conversely, Hammer, who fought and was injured in World War I and now lives in Chicago where he has "a man's job and they pay [him] a man's wage for it", only reluctantly acquiesces to his brother's methods instead of meeting violence with violence (Taylor 166).  The women in the novel, specifically Mary Logan, Cassie's mother and a teacher at their school, also engage in numerous acts of targeted civil disobedience, at great personal and professional risk, to confront the segregated policies that govern their lives.  Jani L. Barker states, "Black readers who engage in identification with the Logans and their resistance to racism gain the benefits of seeing their culture featured positively and realistically.  They see people who look like them living life authentically, with strength, love, and dignity" (128).

The overarching theme of the book centers on "experiencing, confronting, and overcoming racism" (Brooks and Hampton 89).  Taylor "refuses a simple binary of black as good and white as evil.  Racism itself is presented as evil, but black and white characters within the evil system demonstrate that no race has a monopoly on virtue or vice" (Barker 129).  Taylor offers this perspective through T.J., whose actions often hurt members of the African-American community, and Jeremy Simms, the son of a white sharecropper who rejects his family's racist views and makes unsuccessful overtures of friendship to Stacey and the other Logan children.  Taylor places this ambivalence regarding race and good and evil in a conversation between Mary and Cassie, after Cassie experiences a painfully humiliating event in Strawberry.  Mary baldly states her views by telling Cassie, "White is something just like black is something.  Everybody born on this earth is something and nobody, no matter what color, is better than anybody else" (Taylor 127).  However, while David does not explicitly instruct his children to avoid becoming friends with Jeremy, his admonishment to Stacey to tread lightly where friendship with Jeremy is concerned also demonstrates Taylor's refusal to reduce racism to a simple black or white issue.  David tells Stacey

Right now you and Jeremy might get along fine, but in a few years he'll think himself a man but you'll probably still be a boy to him. And if he feels that way, he'll turn on you in a minute... We Logans don't have much to do with white folks.  You know why? 'Cause  white folks mean trouble.  You see black folks hanging 'round with whites, they're headed for trouble.  Maybe one day whites and blacks can be real friends, but right now the country ain't built that way.  Now you could be right 'bout Jeremy making a much finer friend than T.J. ever will be.  The trouble is, down here in Mississippi, it costs too much to find out... So I think you'd better not try (Taylor 158).  

David leaves the final decision up to Stacey, but his feelings about the matter are quite clear, and in many ways, diametrically opposite of Mary's.

Personally, I found Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry to be profound and deeply thought-provoking.  I had to stop reading it from time to time in order to absorb the developments of the plot.  Taylor writes Cassie with equal measures of sass, wit, and wounded innocence.  The rhythm of the language rolls and shifts off the characters' tongues, and subtle, but noticeable, differences in speech patterns are given to each character.  Most of the character development is given to Cassie and Stacey, as they learn to navigate the world around them.  The characters are clearly delineated in their personalities to help keep them separate in a reader's mind.  There is a vast cast of characters that populate this novel.  Keeping track of them can be a bit challenging from the sheer amount of them if a reader isn't paying attention.  I also rather liked that Taylor ended the novel on an unsettled note, rather than neatly tying everything up with a bow.  It would have been unrealistic otherwise.

Halfway through Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, I thought it could make for a good comparative literature unit in high school English classes to compare this novel with Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.  They are both set in the 1930s in the South (Mississippi and Alabama respectively), with young narrators attempting to understand the racist policies and philosophies that permeate and dictate how they live.  They also each have an African-American character accused of a crime he did not commit, with devastating consequences.  I also think it would make a fine entry into a unit of African-American history through literature, with A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry; or Fences, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, or The Piano Lesson by August Wilson for older students.  Middle grades could read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry in English classes while they study the Great Depression in history classes.

In addition to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Taylor wrote several other books about the Logan family, all drawn from her own family's experiences in Mississippi: Let the Circle Be Unbroken, The Land, The Road to Memphis, The Friendship,  Song of the Trees, The Well, and Mississippi Bridge.  She also wrote The Gold Cadillac.

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Works Cited

Barker, Jani L. "Racial Identification and Audience in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and the Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963." Children's Literature in Education 41.2 (2010): 118-45. Web.

Brooks, Wanda, and Gregory Hampton. "Safe Discussions rather than First Hand Encounters: Adolescents Examine Racism through One Historical Fiction Text." Children's Literature in Education 36.1 (2005): 83-98. Web.

Taylor, Mildred. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. New York: Puffin Books, 1976. Print.

'Elijah of Buxton' by Christopher Paul Curtis

Curtis, Christopher Paul. (2007). Elijah of Buxton. New York, Scholastic, Inc. ISBN: 9780439023450

Photo by: L. Propes

Most American schoolchildren are taught about the effect of the Fugitive Slave Act, passed in 1850 as part of the Compromise of 1850 that admitted California as a free state; gave Texas 10 million dollars in exchange for relinquishing claims on disputed territory and set its present-day boundaries; and abolished the slave trade in Washington, D.C., but kept slavery legal.  The Fugitive Slave Act meant that former slaves who had successfully escaped into the North now risked recapture back into slavery.  Free African-Americans were also targets for slave catchers to be sold into slavery.  The Underground Railroad was at its most active in this period, ferrying escaped slaves into Canada (PBS, 2014).

But what happened to the freed slaves once they were in Canada?

Elijah of Buxton tells the story of Elijah, the first (fictional) child born in the settlement of Buxton, in what is now western Ontario.  Buxton was founded by an abolitionist white Presbyterian minister to be a town for freed slaves.  Buxton was not the only town whose initial residents were mostly former slaves, but it was the most successful (Curtis, 2007).  Elijah's status as the first child born in Buxton means he receives just a bit more attention than the other children born there after him.  Over the course of the story, Elijah learns to appreciate the very freedom he has because of his birthplace.  Between overhearing stories from the adults in Buxton and his own involvement in an attempt to aid a fellow resident purchase his family's freedom, Elijah sees his freedom for the precious gift that it is.

Elijah Freeman is an ordinary eleven year-old boy.  He has school, chores, his friends, and a talent for throwing stones at his intended targets.  Elijah's mother calls him "fra-gile".  Elijah isn't physically fragile.  He's a sensitive and often perceptive young man who often wears his heart on his sleeve.  Elijah also happens to have a healthy fear of snakes. His parents, both escaped slaves, want Elijah to make the most of the opportunity that freedom have given them all.  The novel covers the rhythm of life in Buxton over the course of several months.  New residents arrive in Buxton with origins shrouded in mystery.  One resident finally has acquired enough money to purchase his wife and two children.  Slave catchers are rumored to have made it as far north as Canada.  A carnival comes to the neighboring town.

An underlying tension permeates the novel, introduced in the opening pages.  It often revolves the character of the Preacher, a man Elijah can't bring himself to trust completely, even though he feels a minister ought to be trustworthy.  Elijah's dealings with the Preacher always leave him unsettled, and feeling that something wrong has happened and unsure of how to articulate his feelings.  Plus, the Preacher refuses to live in Buxton and abide by its rules.  His past is a blank page to the Buxton residents.  The stories he spins about how he manages to acquire certain things, like a pair of matched pistols, ring hollow.  But, he is the Preacher.  There's also the tension between the adults, who remember their lives of often harsh servitude, and the children who have only known Buxton.  There is also the tension of the escaped slaves, remembering their family members that were left behind in the South.

The pace of the novel meanders a little.  It feels like a river, flowing placidly along its course, curving and twisting as the landscape changes until it hits a sudden drop and the action comes in a rapid burst until it levels out again.  There are several instances in the book where the action rises and falls, but the actual climax of the novel occurs late in the book.  It does, however, drive the final nail into the coffin for Elijah's "fra-gile" nature.  The pace of the novel complements Elijah's maturation, as it happens with so many children, in fits and starts.

Curtis writes the narrative of the novel from Elijah's point of view, so not only is the dialogue written in dialect, so is the narrative text.  There are a few terms that might be unfamiliar to some readers, but  their meaning is clear from the characters reactions.  Their voices can clearly be heard inside a reader's head, and this novel would lend itself well to a read-aloud.  The language is appropriate for the time period and for the age of the story's narrator.

Curtis is a master in this book of showing the reader events and their effect on the characters, rather than just telling them.  He often shows the readers the effect of slavery on families, particularly when a new family, the Taylors, arrives in Buxton.  The Misses Duncan, sisters, recognize Mrs. Taylor as their baby sister, sold to Arkansas from North Carolina when Mrs. Taylor was just a small child with their brother.  Curtis allows the situation of unfold through the dialogue between the Misses Duncan and Mr. Taylor and Elijah's private observations about the way the adults act in this potentially disruptive situation.   Elijah is, in fact, an ideal observer of the life in Buxton.  As a child, he often fades into the background and overhears conversations that he would otherwise not be privy to had the adults known he was listening.   Elijah's internal commentary also displays his growing maturation and provides a window into the community politics of Buxton.

This is a look at a place that isn't even on the radar of most American history classes.  Of course most students have been taught that many escaped slaves ended up in Canada, but their class narrative ends at the 49th parallel.  Curtis visited the settlement of Buxton (it still exists, but primarily as a museum) and used many of their resources to construct the history of Elijah and his community.  Several events in the book were inspired by actual events, which he notes in an author's note at the end of the novel. He even remarks that Buxton was such a successful town due to the strict rules that governed the appearance of houses and their property in a mid-eighteenth century precursor of a homeowners association.  Small details, like how long it would take for mail to be delivered to Buxton from the United States or the value of a nickel, bring the historical era to vivid life.  Curtis offers a small reference list in a brief history of Buxton (aka the Elgin Settlement at Buxton) as well as a timeline of the history of Buxton, and encourages readers to try to visit the museum.

This would be an excellent resource to use in a history class, especially if they are studying the role of slavery in U.S. history.  This would also be an excellent story to tell during African-American History Month, because it would probably be a brand-new episode of African-American history for many students to experience.  The Buxton National Historic Site and Museum has a website that includes teaching resources for classrooms (see "The Learning Centre" tab).  The Día Family Book Club has a free downloadable lesson plan that can be used in a family literacy program about Elijah of Buxton.

Elijah of Buxton is a Newberry Honor book, the winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, and the winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for historical fiction.  It is also available as an audiobook, read by Mirron Willis.  

Other books suggested by the Buxton museum include: I Came as a Stranger by Bryan Prince, The Last Safe House by Barbara Greenwood, North Star to Freedom by Gena K. Gorrel, and Many Thousand Gone by Virginia Hamilton.  

Christopher Paul Curtis has written many books about the African-American experience throughout history.  His novels include The Watsons Go to Birmingham -- 1963 (Newberry Honor; Coretta Scott King Honor); Bud, Not Buddy (Newberry Medal winner; Coretta Scott King Award); The Mighty Miss Malone, Bucking the Sarge; and the upcoming The Madmen of Piney Woods, a companion book to Elijah of Buxton.

Readers can also visit Curtis' website at www.nobodybutcurtis.com.

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"It's funny, it's sad, and it has characters who do their best to stand up to what's in front of them and do the right thing.  Humor and horror and courage are never far apart in this story, sometimes intertwined in a single scene.  Curtis is a masterful storyteller, and this is his best work yet." -- Dean Schneider, Book Links, 2008

"Elijah is an engaging protagonist, and whether he is completing his chores or lamenting his Latin studies or experiencing his first traveling carnival, his descriptions are full of charm and wonder.  Although his colloquial language may prove challenging for some readers, it brings an authenticity and richness to the story that is well worth the extra effort it might require... His guileless recounting of the people he meets and the horrors he sees will allow readers to understand the dangers of the Underground Railroad without being overwhelmed by them... Curtis's talent for dealing with painful periods of history with grace and sensitivity is as strong as ever." -- Kim Dare, School Library Journal, 2007

"Curtis deals with the difficult topic of slavery from a youthful perspective, allowing Elijah to learn of its sadness and pain first hand.  This is done without overwhelming the reader, by infusing the novel with humor.  Character development and voice are great strengths of this terrific novel." -- Spencer Korson, Library Media Connection, 2008

"Curtis' rare combination of humor, suspense, and emotional depth approaches the subject of slavery obliquely at first but gradually leads Elijah to the human tragedy at its core." -- Booklist, 2008

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References:

Curtis, Christopher Paul. 2007. Elijah of buxton. Boston: Sandpiper.

Dare, Kim. 2007. Elijah of buxton. School Library Journal 53 (10) (10): 146-, http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/login?url=http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2060/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=27080818&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Elijah of buxton. 2008. Booklist 104 (9) (1): 12-, http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/login?url=http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2060/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=28830502&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Glantz, Shelley. 2008. Elijah of buxton. Library Media Connection 26 (4) (01): 71-, http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/login?url=http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2060/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=28106064&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Schneider, Dean. 2008. Holding on to hope. Book Links 18 (2) (11): 11-5, 
       http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/login?url=http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2060/login.aspx?           
       direct=true&db=a9h&AN=35265694&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

The compromise of 1850 and the fugitive slave act. [cited March 23 2014]. Available from  
       http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2951.html.