The Madman of Piney Woods

Curtis returns to early-twentieth-century Canada in this companion novel to ELIJAH OF BUXTON. In alternating chapters, JD Jackson voices Benji, an aspiring reporter and lover of the woods, and Kirby Heyborne voices Red, an Irish boy who lives in neighboring Chatham. Both narrators deliver the boys' self-assuredness with relish, as well as their fear of encountering the "Madman of Piney Woods," but they shine most in the voices of the adult characters. Jackson terrifies listeners by detachedly recounting the horrors of the Civil War as the Madman. Heyborne delivers a pitch-perfect Irish accent in the voice of Grandmother O'Toole.The care in both portrayals brings depth to Curtis's theme of the varying ways hardships can shape or damage human beings. E.M.C. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

July 7, 2014
In 1901, Benji Alston lives in Buxton, Ont., a real-life town settled by abolitionists and runaway slaves (and the setting of Curtis’s Newbery Honor–winning Elijah of Buxton). Alvin “Red” Stockard, son of an Irish immigrant and a local judge, resides in nearby Chatham. The woods of the title connect the two towns, and both boys have grown up hearing cautionary tall tales about a wild boogeyman who lives there. Writing in his customary episodic style, Curtis relates their separate stories in alternating chapters, incorporating a large cast, his trademark humor and gritty hijinks, and the historical events that shaped the people and the area: slavery, the U.S. Civil War, and Irish immigration. It takes more than half the book for the boys—both 13—and their stories to connect, which may try the patience of some readers. Those who persist, though, will be rewarded with an update on what became of Elijah, the hero of the first book, as Curtis delivers an ending that ties together the two stories, set 40 years apart, in a poignant and powerful way. Ages 8–12.