Bud, Not Buddy

Christopher Paul Curtis

Image | BOOK COVER: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

It's 1936, in Flint Michigan. Times may be hard, and 10-year-old Bud may be a motherless boy on the run, but Bud's got a few things going for him:
1. He has his own suitcase full of special things.
2. He's the author of Bud Caldwell's Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself.
3. His momma never told him who his father was, but she left a clue: flyers advertising Herman E. Calloway and his famous band, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression!!!!!!
Bud's got an idea that those flyers will lead him to his father. Once he decides to hit the road to find this mystery man, nothing can stop him — not hunger, not fear, not vampires, not even Herman E. Calloway himself. (From Laurel Leaf)

From the book

Here we go again. We were all standing in line waiting for breakfast when one of the caseworkers came in and tap-tap-tapped down the line. Uh-oh, this meant bad news, either they'd found a foster home for somebody or somebody was about to get paddled. All the kids watched the woman as she moved along the line, her high-heeled shoes sounding like little firecrackers going off on the wooden floor.
Shoot! She stopped at me and said, "Are you Buddy Caldwell?"

From Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis ©1999. Published by Laurel Leaf.