The journey of little Charlie

By: Christopher Paul Curtis

New York : Scholastic Press, 2018. Fiction, p. 234

The journey of little Charlie was indeed a journey of epic proportions. You as the reader catch a small glimpse into our history and what it would be like to be a slave in 1850 America. Little Charlie, the son of a poor white sharecropper, is forced to accompany one of the meanest overseers in South Carolina on a journey, in order to pay off his father's debt. For all intents and purposes he and Cap'n Buck are going to travel to Detroit Michigan to retrieve three run away slaves who escaped 10 years ago and bring them back. But once little Charlie meets them he learns how much they are like him, except for the color of their skin, and he knows he would be responsible for their enslavement. He is faced with a choice: survival, or a guilty conscience.

I really enjoyed this book and the character of Charlie Bobo was very real and easy to relate to. The dialect in the book did make it a little challenging at times but it also is what added to the character's voice. It's a book that faces some difficult cruelties but does so in true Christopher Paul Curtis style.

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