Eleven-year-old Elijah is the first child born into freedom in Buxton, Ontario — a settlement of runaway slaves just over the border from Detroit, Michigan. He’s bright, spirited, and curious about the world around him…and the world his parents and his friend Mr. Leroy left behind in America.

When a former slave and con artist who calls himself the Right Reverend Zephariah W. Connerly the Third steals the money Mr. Leroy has been saving to buy his family out of captivity in the South, Elijah is mad enough to join Mr. Leroy on a journey to America in pursuit of the disreputable preacher. There, he discovers firsthand the unimaginable horrors that his parents fled and an understanding of what it means to live free.

• 368 pages
• Ages: 8-12