At 6’4”, Little Charlie Bobo looks like a man but is still a child at 12. Cap’n Buck, the overseer of a nearby plantation, claims he paid Charlie’s late dad for a job he never did and now expects Charlie to follow through on the commitment: Help Cap’n Buck recover $4000 in stolen “property,” an African American family that escaped slavery nine years before. For Charlie, poor and white, slavery is a fact of life in the south, not something he’s ever thought to question. That slowly changes as he travels north. When they venture into Canada to convince the escaped couple’s son, Sylvanus, that his parents need him back in Detroit, it’s Charlie’s job to build rapport with Sylvanus and get him to board the train. Charlie’s goodness shines through from the start, but his journey from innocence and ignorance to understanding is genuine and compelling in a novel that once again showcases Curtis’s ability to create believable characters, offer laugh-out-loud humor, and reveal searing truths. A lengthy author’s note describes Curtis’s decision to tell the story from the perspective of a white character (not his original intention) who, although raised steeped in poverty and racism, is capable of “seeing the lie of what he’s been taught” and “possessed great courage to which we all could aspire.” (Age 11 and older)

The Newberry Medalist brings humor and heart to this story of a Civil War–era boy struggling to do right in the face of history’s cruelest evils.

Twelve-year-old Charlie is down on his luck: His sharecropper father just died, and Cap’n Buck—the most fearsome man in Possum Moan, South Carolina—has come to collect a debt. Fearing for his life, Charlie strikes a deal with Cap’n Buck and agrees to track down some folks accused of stealing from the cap’n and his boss. It’s not too bad of a bargain for Charlie . . . until he comes face-to-face with the fugitives and discovers their true identities. Torn between his guilty conscience and his survival instinct, Charlie needs to figure out his next move—and soon. It’s only a matter of time before Cap’n Buck catches on.

Praise for The Journey of Little Charlie

A National Book Award Finalist

“This is a compelling and ugly story for middle-grade readers told with genuine care. Little Charlie is a product of his Southern upbringing, yet in Curtis’s skillful hands he learns the world is not as he’d thought . . . Christopher Paul Curtis does it again.” —Historical Novel Society

“A characteristically lively and complex addition to the historical fiction of the era from Curtis.” —Kirkus Reviews