Bud, Not Buddy

 

 

 

Curtis, C.P. (1999). Bud, not Buddy. New York: Scholastic.

 

Can you imagine waking up in a foster home with a kid sticking a pencil up your nose, just to see how far up it would go? That's what happens to Bud (not Buddy) his first night at the Amoses. He doesn't like it much and decides to go on the lam...and to find the man he thinks is his father, Herman E. Calloway.

 

So begins Bud's Depression-era adventure that takes him from Flint to Grand Rapids, Michigan and includes being bopped on the head, a library, kissing a girl, jumping trains, brushes with the law and a man named Lefty. Not to mention you can learn some of Bud Caldwell's Rules and Things to Have a Funner Life and Make a Better Liar of Yourself. For example, there's Rules and Things Number 83: If a Adult Tells You Not to Worry, and You Weren't Worried Before, You Better Hurry Up and Start 'Cause You're Already Running Late.

What other Rules and Things does Bud have? Will Bud find his father? Or something more than he bargained for? Read Christopher Paul Curtis' often funny and sometimes poignant story about a boy finding who he is to see what happens!