The Madman of Piney Woods (Scholastic Gold)

About this book

Hailed as a modern-day Mark Twain, Christopher Paul Curtis introduces two clever, funny, brave, utterly authentic kids. Benji and Red are boys young readers will want to run around in the woods with, play pranks on, and entrust with their deepest secrets.

Set in Buxton, Ontario, a settlement of runaway slaves, forty years after the events of Elijah of Buxton, the story unfolds through Benji and Red's alternating first-person narratives. Through their eyes, we meet two different, yet equally damaged, individuals: an Irish immigrant woman whose journey to Canada proves as devastating as the famine she's escaping, and a Black Canadian soldier who barely survives the American Civil War only to find he no longer fits in back home.

As the boys discover that their elders have been forever scarred by their pasts, so do we readers come to understand more than we could learn from any history lesson. Here is a novel that will break your heart — and expand it, too.

Reviews

Praise for The Madman of Piney Woods:

* "Humor and tragedy are often intertwined, and readers will find themselves sobbing and chuckling, sometimes in the same scene." -Kirkus, Starred Review

*". . . a delight, featuring the author's obvious love for his characters, his skillful use of sentiment, and his often hyperbolic humor . . ." -Booklist, Starred Review

"Heady stuff. Funny stuff. Smart stuff. Good stuff. Better get your hands on this stuff." -School Library Journal