Annal:2008 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction

Elijah of Buxton

Christopher Paul Curtis

• 2008 CS King-Author winner
• 2008 Scott O'Dell winner
• 2008 Newbery honor
• 2010 YRCA-Junior nominee
• Score: 30.58

As a first-generation freeborn black, 11-year-old Elijah Buxton had no direct experience with slavery. That changes, however, when a thief steals money set aside for freeing a friend’s enslaved family. Elijah sets off rapidly in pursuit, leaving behind his Canadian home and crossing into dangerous American territory, where he encounters terrifying evidence of the grievous human cost of slavery.