. It's the fictional story of a ten-year-old African American boy, Bud Caldwell, who lived in an orphanage in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression. He ran away from a foster family who treated him poorly and decide to go look for his father. Bud's mother had died when he was six, and he thinks his father is Herman E. Calloway, a well-known jazz musician. His mother had several flyers that she kept featuring Herman's band and the locations of where the musicians played. Bud didn't know why else his mother would have kept the flyers unless they had something to do with his dad. Even though Bud's last name was Caldwell, it was very close to Calloway, so Bud figured Herman was his father. Bud kept everything he owned in a tattered suitcase - a bag of rocks, a blanket, the flyers, and a photograph of his mother when she was younger, riding a pony. Bud's mother named him "Bud," not "Buddy." He remembered many things his mother had told him, and one of them was the story of his name. She told him "Bud is your name and don't you ever let anyone call you anything outside of that either...especially don't every let anyone call you Buddy...I would've added that dy onto the end of your name if I intended for it to be there. Your name is Bud, period." She went on to explain, "A bud is a flower-to-be. A flower in waiting. Waiting for just the right warmth and care to open up. It's a little fist of love waiting to unfold and be seen by the world. And that's you." Thus, every time Bud meets somebody he introduces himself by saying, "I'm Bud, not Buddy."Bud and his best friend from the orphanage, Bugs, decided to stow away on a train to try to find Herman E. Calloway, and found a "Hooverville" where they met a group who knew the location of the train station. When the train departs earlier than expected one morning, the crowd rushes to board it, and Bud was not able to keep up to jump on. He went to the library to find out how to get to Grand Rapids, where he believed his father lived, and decided to walk the 120 miles from Flint. He had not gotten far when a redcap stopped him, questioned him, fed him, and took him home with him to sleep for the night. He asked Bud where he lived, and Bud lied so that he would not get sent back home. He told him Grand Rapids, and the man said he was going there the next day anyway, and that he would take him home to his father, who Bud said was Herman E. Calloway. The man knew exactly where he lived. When they arrived the next day, the band looked at Bud, confused, and asked what he needed. Bud told them he was looking for his father, and pointed to Herman, who scoffed at Bud. Everyone laughed and told him that there was no way Herman could be his father, and Bud was devastated. The lead singer of the jazz band, a woman, took an instant liking to Bud, and after hearing that he had been living in an orphanage, asked Herman if they could take him in and let him stay with them. After a few weeks, Bud had a conversation with the singer and told her the name of his mother; at that point everyone realized Herman was not his father, but his grandfather. Bud's mother had left home when she was young because Herman was so strict, and he had not seen her for years. He was sad about her death, but happy to have found out about Bud, and Bud stayed with him and the band and lived in his mother's old bedroom, where pictures of horses, her passion, were thumb-tacked all over the walls. But was given a saxophone of his own by one of the band members and vowed to play as well as Herman and his band did one day.
This book gives the reader a glimpse of the Great Depression and what it was like to live during that time period. Hoovervilles were indeed a reality at the time, and thousands of Americans were without work, food, or homes. Many children were abandoned by their parents because they could not afford to feed or clothe them, and the children, like Bud, were forced to fend for themselves. Although the Hooverville that Bud and his friend Bugs visited was primarily composed of blacks, there were also some white people there. A white couple with a sick, crying baby chose not to gather around the fire to keep warm and did not eat with the blacks. Deza, the little girl Bud befriended while there, tells him they had been invited to sit and eat, but when someone took food over to them the white man said "Thank you very much, but we're white people. We ain't in need of a handout." This perception that white people had about black people was typical of the time period.
Entertainment was crucial for Americans during the Great Depression; the author explains in his afterword that his paternal grandfather was actually a big bandleader for most of his life, and the character of Herman E. Calloway was based on his real grandfather, Herman E. Curtis. Americans relied on entertainers and entertainment to get them through those challenging times. The author uses Bud effectively as narrator to paint the picture of 1930s America for the reader. The Great Depression affected everyone in America, not just the black population. Unemployment was the worst it ever was in history. The Hooverville in Bud, Not Buddy was the perfect example of the U.S. unemployment melting pot during the 1930s.
Like many of the books I have read for this blog, Bud, Not Buddy was recommended to me by my 13-year-old son. He was very impressed with not only this book, but also this author, Christopher Paul Curtis. He had already read The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963, which I also hope to read, and liked it so much that he wanted to read another book by the author. I seem to enjoy similar titles that my son enjoys. I was also interested in this book because it won the Newbery Medal in 2000. I would highly recommend it as not only an enjoyable story, but also a realistic depiction of the diversity in America during the Great Depression.
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