{"id":701,"date":"2006-02-25T15:54:05","date_gmt":"2006-02-25T20:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/?p=701"},"modified":"2006-03-20T16:16:50","modified_gmt":"2006-03-20T21:16:50","slug":"bud-not-buddy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/2006\/02\/25\/bud-not-buddy\/","title":{"rendered":"Bud, Not Buddy"},"content":{"rendered":"

2000 Newbery Medal Winner: Bud, not Buddy, by Christopher Paul Curtis<\/p>\n\nThe Plot<\/b>
\nBud Caldwell has been “in the system” since his mother died when he was 6. But he’s just about fed up with being farmed out to families who don’t actually want a son, just a servant and the check that accompanies him. So he sets out in search of his father, with only a handful of posters his mother saved to guide him.<\/p>\n

My Thoughts<\/b>
\nAgain with the Depression, though this one, instead of a white girl as the protagonist, has a black boy. We also get to see a slightly different perspective than in the other books — the action of this book takes place in and around cities, and we visit a soup kitchen and a Hooverville in the course of the story.<\/p>\n

I didn’t really expect to like this book very much; from the cover, it appeared to be an ‘issue’ book, which is rarely a positive sign. But it turned out not to be so very issue-y after all. Bud, though he’s black, doesn’t spend his time dealing with prejudice and hardship heaped upon him because of the color of his skin. He’s also an engaging character, with clear reasons for what he does. Even when we can see there would be a better option for him, we can understand why he’s made the choice he has.<\/p>\n

The central plot of the book is Bud’s search for a place he can call home. He begins the book feeling comfortable in his group home with the other kids, but that’s short lived, as he’s soon sent off to stay with another family. After he takes off, the reader half expects that someone will pursue him and bring him back, but this never happens: indeed, it never seems to occur to any of the adults that Bud encounters to question the account he gives of himself.<\/p>\n

Bud eventually manages to make his way to the city where he believes his father to be living, and presents himself to the man. Naturally, the man denies the possibility that Bud is his child, and even the reader would tend to believe this is the case. So we’re then left with the mystery of why Bud’s mother had this strange obsession with the man in question.<\/p>\n

I felt the solution to the mystery was pretty obvious, but the “big reveal” was handled pretty well, using clues that had been scattered throughout the whole book rather than just the several pages preceeding the revelations.\n<\/pracut>\n

In Short<\/b>
\nWhile I’m not sure everyone would enjoy this book, it’s definitely a fine example of historical fiction and would do very well for a book report. Even though certain parts of the plot were very easy to figure out, the fact is, this wasn’t a mystery, so I can’t really take points away for that. There is a death, but it took place several years before the start of the narrative, and the main character doesn’t dwell on it too much. I give it an 8\/10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2000 Newbery Medal Winner: Bud, not Buddy, by Christopher Paul Curtis The Plot Bud Caldwell has been “in the system” since his mother died when he was 6. But he’s just about fed up with being farmed out to families who don’t actually want a son, just a servant and the check that accompanies him. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}