Chapter Book 4: Bud, Not Buddy (Newbery)

Author: Christopher Paul Curtis

Genre: Fiction

Subgenre: Historical Fiction

Themes: racism and prejudice, hope in the face of obstacles, survival, loss of a parent, family connectedness

Characters:  

~Primary: Bud Caldwell

~Secondary: Todd Amos, Herman E. Calloway, Lefty Lewis, Bugs, Steady Eddie Patrick, Miss Thomas, Bugs, Nina Sleet, Deza Malone, Tyla, Mr. Jimmy, Doug the Thug, Doo-doo Bug, Dirty Deed

Awards:

~Newbery Award Winner

~Coretta Scott King Award Winner

Date of Publication: 1999

Publishing Company: Scholastic, Inc.

Summary: Bud, not Buddy, Caldwell is determined to find his father.  He is resolved to leave behind the mistreatment he received from his foster home, and sets out on an adventure from Flint to Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Although his mother never told him who his father was, before she passed on she left a clue, a flier from a jazz show by Herman E. Calloway and the Dusky Devastators of the Depression.  Bud is determined that no obstacles, not even a vampire and a real live girl, will keep him from his goal of being reunited with his long lost father.

Recommendations: This book is a great book for reading with the class.  There are numerous ways to use it to tie into the curriculum.  This book could be used in social studies to study racism and the Great Depression, to music by studying jazz, and to science by looking at the different machines used at the time of the Great Depression (telegraph, automobiles, etc.).