The Madman of Piney Woods by Christopher Paul Curtis (review)

Curtis returns to the Ontario community setting of his award-winning Elijah of Buxton (BCCB 10/07), following a pair of thirteen-year-olds, who are, in 1901, living stable, happy lives built on the tragedies and struggles of their forebears. Alvin “Red” Stockard, ginger-haired resident of neighboring Chatham, is dearly loved by his wise, good-natured father, who tries to help his son understand that Grandmother O’Toole has never recovered from the horrors of emigration during the Irish Potato Famine and her quarantine on a “coffin ship” in the St. Lawrence River. Benji Alston, an aspiring newspaperman locked in perpetual skirmish with his younger siblings, has grown up in the tight-knit town of Buxton, founded decades ago by escaped slaves. Both boys, along with their respective friends, have been kept in line by their elders’ cautionary tales of a boogeyman-like creature who roams the area in search of errant children. Benji and Red each have a private encounter with the man himself—the Madman of Piney Woods to Benji and the South Woods Lion Man to Red—and come away shaken, but cognizant that this is a human being with manners and a deep streak of kindness. When the two boys finally meet each other and form a friendship, they are drawn into an adventure to save the man who had once terrified them. Curtis masterfully interweaves goofy family vignettes, memorable characters, and thought-provoking themes into a page-turner with appeal to multiple audiences and tastes. While episodes of belling Grandmother’s cane and turning siblings’ lives literally upside-down will bring on the laughs, well-crafted reminders of the psyche-breaking hardships of family and community founders will resonate just as powerfully. This will be a strong recommendation for families in search of materials to enjoy together.