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Bud, Not Buddy (Mass Market Paperback) (Paperback)
by Christopher Paul Curtis
| Category:
Fiction, Children's book, Adventure, Ages 9-12 |
| Market price: ¥ 88.00
MSL price:
¥ 78.00
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Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Delightful and heart-warming, this book is another feel-good, hurray for the underdog, farfetched kind of story we all need now and then. |
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Author: Christopher Paul Curtis
Publisher: Laurel Leaf
Pub. in: September, 2004
ISBN: 0553494104
Pages: 272
Measurements: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BC00418
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0553494105
Language: American English
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- Awards & Credential -
The Newbery Medal/Coretta Scott King Award winner. |
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- MSL Picks -
"Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis is an adventure story and discovery about a 10 year old orphan living in the 30's, trying to find his long-lost father who he believes to be a famous jazz musician he has heard of. On the way he meets some nice and some not so nice people. He finds who he thinks is his father but then learns a shocking truth.
This book is very good because the main character Bud shows a lot of courage as he goes on his perilous journey to find his long-lost father. Although Bud has many hard times he remains brave.
Another reason I enjoyed this was because Bud has a lot of logic. He knows when enough is enough; he knows never to quit to keep going to never stop. In Buds case
he was never going to stop trying to find his father.
The only real weakness was that the author left out some important information. For example a prologue before chapter one to introduce the story. I would have liked it more if Buds mother had told him at least some thing about his father and why he was not around and just pretty much tell him about his family.
Over all this book was well written, and it catches you pretty fast. The book was not over all boring. The only boring part was when Bud was pick up his way to Grand Rapids, because at this point in the story you begin to think he may never get there. But in the end that was very helpful in getting to where he wanted to go.
I would recommend this book to all ages. Parents, children, or grand parents would like this book. Because there are no bad scenes or violence, and it still remains a good adventure story.
(From quoting Chris, USA)
Target readers:
Children and adults who like the advanture stories.
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Born in Flint, Michigan, Christopher Paul Curtis spent his first 13 years after high school on the assembly line of Flint’s historic Fisher Body Plant #1. His job entailed hanging car doors, and it left him with an aversion to getting into and out of large automobiles - particularly big Buicks.
Curtis’s writing - and his dedication to it - has been greatly influenced by his family members, particularly his wife, Kaysandra. With grandfathers like Earl “Lefty” Lewis, a Negro Baseball League pitcher, and 1930s bandleader Herman E. Curtis, Sr., of Herman Curtis and the Dusky Devastators of the Depression, it is easy to see why Christopher Paul Curtis was destined to become an entertainer.
Christopher Paul Curtis made an outstanding debut in children’s literature with The Watsons Go to Birminghag - 1963. His second novel, Bud, Not Buddy, is the first book ever to receive both the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Author Award.
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From Publisher
"It's funny how ideas are, in a lot of ways they're just like seeds. Both of them start real, real small and then... woop, zoop, sloop... before you can say Jack Robinson, they've gone and grown a lot bigger than you ever thought they could." So figures scrappy 10-year-old philosopher Bud - "not Buddy" - Caldwell, an orphan on the run from abusive foster homes and Hoovervilles in 1930s Michigan. And the idea that's planted itself in his head is that Herman E. Calloway, standup-bass player for the Dusky Devastators of the Depression, is his father.
Guided only by a flier for one of Calloway's shows - a small, blue poster that had mysteriously upset his mother shortly before she died - Bud sets off to track down his supposed dad, a man he's never laid eyes on. And, being 10, Bud-not-Buddy gets into all sorts of trouble along the way, barely escaping a monster-infested woodshed, stealing a vampire's car, and even getting tricked into "busting slob with a real live girl." Christopher Paul Curtis, author of The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963, once again exhibits his skill for capturing the language and feel of an era and creates an authentic, touching, often hilarious voice in little Bud. (Ages 8 to 12) - Paul Hughes -This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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We were all standing in line waiting for breakfast when one of the caseworkers cam in an tap-tap-taped down the line. Uh-oh, this meant bad news, either they'd found a foster home for somebody or somebody was about to be 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?"
I said, "It's Bud, not Buddy, ma'am."
She put her hand on my shoulder and took me out of line. Then she pulled Jerry, on of the littler boys, over. "Aren't you Jerry Clark?" He nodded.
"Boys, good news! Now that the school year has ended, you both have been accepted in new temporary-care homes starting this afternoon!"
Jerry asked me the same thing I was thinking. "Together?"
She said, "why, no. Jerry, you'll be in a family with three little girls-"
Jerry looked like he'd just found out that they were going to dip him in a pot of boiling milk.
" - and Bud-" She looked at some papers she was holding. "Oh, yes, the Amoses, you'll be with Mr. And Mrs. Amos and their son, who's twelve years old, that makes him just two years older than you, doesn't it, Bud?"
"Yes, ma'am."
She said, "I'm sure you'll both be very happy."
Me and Jerry looked at each other.
The woman said "Now, now, boys, no need to look so glum. I know you don't know what it means, but there is a depression going on all over this country. People can't find jobs and these are very, very difficult times for everybody. We've been lucky enough to find two wonderful families to open their doors for you. I think it's best that we show our new foster families that we're very--"
She dragged out the word very, waiting for us to finish the sentence.
Jerry said, "Cheerful, helpful and grateful." I moved my lips and mumbled.
She smiled and said, "Unfortunately you won't have time for breakfast. I'll have a couple of pieces of fruit put in a bag. In the meantime got to the sleep room and strip your beds and gather all of your things."
Here we go again. I felt that I as walking in my sleep as I followed Jerry back to the room where all of the boys' beds were jim-jammed together. This was the third foster home I was going to and I'm used to packing up and leaving, but it still surprises me that there are always a few seconds, right after they tell you you've got to go, when my nose gets all runny and my throat all choky and eyes get all sting-y. But the tears coming out doesn't happen to me anymore. I don't know when it first happened, but it seems like my eyes don't cry no more.
Jerry sat on his bed and I could tell that he was losing the fight not to cry. Tears were popping out of his eyes and slipping down his cheeks.
I sat down next to him and said, "I know being in a house with three girls sounds terrible, Jerry, but it's a lot better than being with a boy who's a couple of years older than you. I'm the one who's going to have problems. A older boy is going to want to fight, but those little girls are going to treat you real good. They're going to treat you like some kind of special pet or something."
Jerry said, "You really think so?"
I said, "I'd trade you in a minute. The worst thing that is going to happen to you is that they are going to make you play house a lot. They'll probably make you be the baby and will hug you and do this kind of junk to you." I tickled Jerry under his chin and said, "Ga-ga, goo-goo, baby-waby."
Jerry couldn't help but smile. I said, "You're going to be great."
Jerry looked like he wasn't so scared anymore so I went over to my bed and started getting ready.
Even though it was me that was in a lot of trouble I couldn't help but feel sorry for Jerry. Not only because he was going to have to live around three girls, but also because being six is a real tough age to be at. Most folks think you start being a real adult when you're fifteen or sixteen years old, but that's not true, it really starts when you're around six.
It's at six that grown folks don't think you're a cute little kid anymore, they talk to you and expect that you understand everything that they mean. And you'd best understand too, if you aren't looking for some real trouble, 'cause its around six that grown folks stop giving you little swats and taps and jump clean up to giving you slugs that'll knock you right down and have you seeing stars in the middle of the day. The first foster home I was in taught me that real quick.
Six is a bad time too 'cause that's when some real scary things start to happen to your body, it's around then that your teeth start coming a-loose in your mouth.
You wake up one morning and it seems like your tongue is the first one to notice that something strange is going on, ' cause as soon as you get up there it is pushing and rubbing up against one of your front teeth and I'll be doggoned if that tooth isn't the littlest bit wiggly.
At first you think it's kind of funny, but the tooth keeps getting looser and looser and one day, in the middle of pushing the tooth back and forth and squinching your eyes shut, you pull it clean out. It's the scariest thing you can think of 'cause you lose control of your tongue at the same time and no matter how hard you try to stop it, it won't the new hole in rout mouth alone, it keeps digging around in the spot where the tooth used to be.
You tell some adult about what's happening but they do is say it's normal. You can't be too sure, though, 'cause it shakes you up a whole lot more than grown folks think it does when perfectly good parts of your body commence to loosening up and falling off of you
Unless you're as stupid as a lamppost you've got to wonder what's coming off next, your arm? Your leg? Your neck? Every morning when you wake up it seems a lot of your parts aren't stuck on as good as they used to be.
Six is real tough. That's how old I was when I came to live here in the Home. That's how old I was when Momma died.
I folded the blanket and sheet and set them back on the mattress. Then I reached under the bed to get my suitcase. Most of the kids in the Home keep their things in a paper or cloth sack, but not me. I have my own suitcase.
I set it on the mattress and untied the twine that held it together. I did what I do every night before I go to sleep. I checked to make sure that everything was there. The way there're more and more kids coming into the Home every day, I had to be sure no one had run off with any of my things.
First I pulled my blanket out and saw that everything was where it was supposed to be. At the bottom of my suitcase were my flyers. I took the blue flyer out and looked at it again.
The paper was starting to wear out from me looking at it so much but I liked to check if there was anything that I hadn't noticed before. It was like something was telling me there was a message for me on this flyer but I didn't have the decoder ring to read what was.
Across the top of the flyer writ in big black letters were the words LIMITED ENGAGEMENT, then in little letters it said, "Direct from an S.R.O. engagement in New York City." Underneath that in big letters again it said, "Herman E. Calloway and the Ducky Devastators of the Depression!!!!!!"
Those six exclamation points made it seem like this was the most important news anyone could think of, seems like you'd have to be really great to deserve all of those exclamation points all stacked up in a row like that.
Next the paper said, "Masters of the New Jazz," then in the middle of the flyer was a blurry picture of the man I have a real good suspicion about. I've never met him, but I have a pretty good feeling that this guy must be my father.
In the picture he's standing next to t giant fiddle that's taller than him. It looks like it's real heavy 'cause he's leaning up against it trying to hold it up. He looks like he's been doing this for a long time and he must be tired 'cause he has a droopy, dreamy look on his face. There are two men beside him, one playing drums and the other one blowing a horn.
It wasn't hard to see what the guy must be my father was like just by looking at his picture. You could tell her was a real quiet, real friendly and smart man, he had one of those kinds of faces. Underneath the picture someone had writ with a black fountain pen, "One Night Only in Flint, Michigan, at the Luxurious Fifty Grand on Saturday June 16, 1932. 9 Until ?"
I remember Momma bringing this flyer with her when she came from working one day, I remember because she got very upset when she put it on the supper table and kept looking at it and picking it up and putting it back and moving it around. I was only six then and couldn't understand why this one got her so upset, she kept fo... |
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Michael (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-14 00:00>
Bud, not Buddy is about a little boy who lives in an orphanage. His mother died when he was only a tiny little boy. Before she died, she left a couple things for Bud, including a couple flyers that give clues to where his father is. This is what gave bud he idea to find his father. The orphanage is not too bad, but Bud is determined to find him. He sets out on an adventure to find him with a friend named Bugs. Bugs and Bud are best friends and stand up for each other everyday. When Bud goes to catch a train that will go to where he suspects his father is, Bugs get on the train and Bud is trying as hard as he can but just can't catch up with Bugs, he is left behind only to find a HUGE adventure ahead of him. He meets many interesting people along the way. One stranger even let him stay in his house overnight. He learns about many things about his mother and how she grew up and about his real father. Was this guy, Herman E. Calloway, really his father? He found all his answers in the end and when he put them together, they all made sense. Who was his mother? Who was his father? Who was he? This book was enjoyable. It was very interesting because there were many descriptive details about his trip along one road he was walking on. The characters names of the band that Herman E. Calloway was in really explained their personality. I think that anybody who liked a book with some humor but serious moments would like this book. This book was a Newbery Award Winner. I think this book deserved the award. I could not put this book down. It kept you on the edge of your seat the WHOLE time. The plot was well planned. I can tell that this author put an incredible amount of time on it because the descriptions and the usage of words were so believable. Sometimes Bud would say something like "Yes Ma'am" and it was like wow! He has to call her that?! It a really great story with tons of exciting adventure and exciting people. I would most definetly read it over again. |
Jason (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-14 00:00>
This is a series of books about the three Baudelaire children, whose name are Klaus, Sunny, and Violet. They are rich orphans and stalking Count Olaf. Count Olaf is an evil man trying to get the Baudelaire fortune. This book leaves off from the ninth book in the series. At the end of the ninth book Count Olaf had kidnapped Sunny and had left Klaus and Violet up in the Mortain Mountains. In this story the Baudelaires are trying to escape from Count Olaf and his troupes, find their sister, and try to find one of their parents. They have to dodge a runaway caravan and try to get up a slippery slope filled with chunks of ice. Violet and Klaus meet Quigley Quagmire who is an orphan just like them and helps them through the Mortain Mountains to find their sister. In the end, oh yeah sorry you will have to read the book to figure out what happens. One thing I will tell you is has one remarkable ending.
My favorite quote of the book was when Esme, who is Olaf's girlfriend called the two Baudelaires"idiotic liars" for thinking that they were hogging the cigarettes. Actually the things that she thought were cigarettes were Verdant flammable Devices. They are green sticks that make a lot of smoke when people light them, so people could communicate up in the mountains. This was my favorite quote because Esme thought the devices were cigarettes, so that proved she was dumb.
This was such a great book that I would lend it to anyone who knew how to read. I would even lend this book to a 6-year-old kid who barely knows how to read. But if he is a person who doesn't understand big words or tough words I don't think he would get the concept of this book. I defintely think this book was in my top 10 best books. The only problem I thought was wrong with this book is that I thought it added some extra details that didn't have to go in the book. |
Kelly (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-14 00:00>
Bud, Not Buddy is an award-winning book written by Christopher Paul Curtis that takes place during the Great Depression. This was a period of history when the overall world economy was suffering. The main character in this story is Bud Caldwell, a ten-year-old orphan, who is transferred out of the Home (i.e., orphanage) to live with a foster family, the Amoses. After a short while, Bud finds it hard to get along with them. Therefore, he decides to leave the Amoses and go in search of a well-known musician, Herman E. Calloway, whom Bud believes is his father. That is when he stumbles upon a great discovery.
This is a book that is worth reading because the author makes the plot very unpredictable. For example, when Bud is in the Amos¡¦s shed, he finds what he thinks is a vampire bat. Because he does not want to get his blood sucked, he uses his jackknife to slice the creature. This fools the reader into thinking that Bud has just slaughtered an innocent animal. In reality, Bud has not killed a bat¡Xhe has cut off part of a hornets¡¦ nest and aggravated those living within. In addition, the author also does an excellent job in giving Bud a distinct voice. He purposely uses some incorrect grammar and other diction so readers can actually hear Bud talking to them. The techniques that Curtis uses make this story seem realistic.
This is an excellent book with many interesting incidents, but my favorite part occurs near the end of the book, when Bud shows Herman E. Calloway his collection of rocks with the writing on them that his mother had given him, which matched those that he had. This is the most suspenseful episode because at this point, Herman looks ready to give Bud a beating because he thinks Bud stole them from him, and Bud appears ready to prove that Herman is really his father. When Bud insists that he had received them from his mother, Herman demands that Bud reveal his mother¡¦s name. When Bud says that her name is Angela Janet, Herman looks stunned. Soon, Bud finds out that Herman is really his grandfather on his mother¡¦s side of the family, not his long-lost father. I found this discovery very surprising because Bud¡¦s constant conviction that Herman was his father led me to believe that he was right. Bud¡¦s finding a relative makes the ending of this book satisfying. |
Ivy (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-14 00:00>
Bud not buddy is an excellent book. I choose to read this book because it sounded like a very good book. Bud, Not Buddy was a historical fiction novel written by Christopher Paul Curtis. The book's setting takes place during the Great Depression and in many different areas in which Bud takes journeys to find his father. The book talks about his mother who died when he was very young and he has not yet ever known his father but finds out in the end that he actually meets his grandfather.
The people he meets at the end are relevant to the story because they are band members with his grandfather. I would say the themes of this book are determination, courage, and hope. No matter what life throws in Bud's way, he is always focused and determined to find his father. A surprise observation was in the end when you expected the man to be his father but in fact it was his grandfather which was a shock to me as the reader. The plot in the story kept you interested because you always wanted to know if he was going to find his father in the end. There is a lot of figurative language and vocabulary used in the story and Bud's "Rules" provided much laughter during the reading. I think the pacing and tone, as well as the sentence length and structure was appropriate for the grade level that this was set for.
I would recommend this novel to young children who may have never known one of their parents and that they should never give up hope in their search. |
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