Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud, Not Buddy. New York: Delacorte, 1999. Print.
Summary
The year is 1936, the place is Flint, Michigan, and the hero is 10-year-old Bud Caldwell. Bud ("not Buddy," as the title says and the book repeatedly emphasizes) has been living in an orphanage since he was six, when his mother died. After escaping from an abusive foster family, Bud decides to head out to Grand Rapids, with only his treasured suitcase and "Bud Caldwell's Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself" in tow, in search of famous musician Herman E. Calloway, who he believes is his father. Finding Calloway, however, is only the beginning...
My Impressions
This book, published in 1999, is a "new classic" in every sense of the word. It follows a lovable, relatable young hero through a series of events both hilarious and dramatic. It always provides a picture of life during the Great Depression, a time in American history that has particular resonance today as foreclosures and job losses once again seem all around us. This Newbery and Coretta Scott King winner is a must-have for any public, school, or home library for its memorable characters and satisfying story.
What Other Reviewers Said
As in his Newbery Honor-winning debut, The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963, Curtis draws on a remarkable and disarming mix of comedy and pathos, this time to describe the travails and adventures of a 10-year-old African-American orphan in Depression-era Michigan. Bud is fed up with the cruel treatment he has received at various foster homes, and after being locked up for the night in a shed with a swarm of angry hornets, he decides to run away. His goal: to reach the man he, on the flimsiest of evidence, believes to be his father, jazz musician Herman E. Calloway. Relying on his own ingenuity and good luck, Bud makes it to Grand Rapids, where his "father" owns a club. Calloway, who is much older and grouchier than Bud imagined, is none too thrilled to meet a boy claiming to be his long-lost son. It is the other members of his band, Steady Eddie, Mr. Jimmy, Doug the Thug, Doo-Doo Bug Cross, Dirty Deed Breed and motherly Miss Thomas, who make Bud feel like he has finally arrived home. While the grim conditions of the times and the harshness of Bud's circumstances are authentically depicted, Curtis shines on them an aura of hope and optimism. And even when he sets up a daunting scenario, he makes readers laugh, for example, mopping floors for the rejecting Calloway, Bud pretends the mop is "that underwater boat in the book Momma read to me, Twenty Thousand Leaks Under the Sea." Bud's journey, punctuated by Dickensian twists in plot and enlivened by a host of memorable personalities, will keep readers engrossed from first page to last. Ages 9-12.
Grade 4-7-When 10-year-old Bud Caldwell runs away from his new foster home, he realizes he has nowhere to go but to search for the father he has never known: a legendary jazz musician advertised on some old posters his deceased mother had kept. A friendly stranger picks him up on the road in the middle of the night and deposits him in Grand Rapids, MI, with Herman E. Calloway and his jazz band, but the man Bud was convinced was his father turns out to be old, cold, and cantankerous. Luckily, the band members are more welcoming; they take him in, put him to work, and begin to teach him to play an instrument. In a Victorian ending, Bud uses the rocks he has treasured from his childhood to prove his surprising relationship with Mr. Calloway. The lively humor contrasts with the grim details of the Depression-era setting and the particular difficulties faced by African Americans at that time. Bud is a plucky, engaging protagonist. Other characters are exaggerations: the good ones (the librarian and Pullman car porter who help him on his journey and the band members who embrace him) are totally open and supportive, while the villainous foster family finds particularly imaginative ways to torture their charge. However, readers will be so caught up in the adventure that they won't mind. Curtis has given a fresh, new look to a traditional orphan-finds-a-home story that would be a crackerjack read-aloud.- Kathleen Isaacs, Edmund Burke School, Washington, DC
Suggested Activities
Listen to the afterword from author Christopher Paul Curtis on the audio book version (available from Random House Audio.) Curtis tells how the book was inspired in part from the stories of his own grandfathers about life during the Depression. He ends with a charge to young readers to listen to and learn their own family stories. After reading the book, children can talk to their parents, grandparents, or other family members about these stories. They can share it in their classrooms or book discussion groups and then make their own storybook about it.
Other Citations
Rev. of "Bud, Not Buddy." Publishers Weekly. Amazon.com: Bud, Not Buddy (Readers Circle (Laurel-Leaf)) (9780553494105): Christopher Paul Curtis: Books." Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & More. Web. 13 Sept. 2010. <http://tinyurl.com/39vcwqt>.
Issacs, Kathleen. Rev. of "Bud, Not Buddy." School Library Journal. Amazon.com: Bud, Not Buddy (Readers Circle (Laurel-Leaf)) (9780553494105): Christopher Paul Curtis: Books." Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & More. Web. 13 Sept. 2010. <http://tinyurl.com/39vcwqt>.
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