Bud, Not Buddy

Curtis, Christopher Paul. 1999. Bud, Not Buddy. Scholastic. New York, New York. ISBN 0439227534

Bud, an orphan, sets out to find his father with clues his mother left when she passed away. This book takes place during the depression and in a time period when it was very difficult to be a successful black man. Bud tries to walk two hundred and seventy miles to get to where he thinks his dad might be but he is stopped by a man named “Lefty” who gives him a ride to where he needs to be. The person Bud thinks is his father, Herman E Calloway, later turns out to be his grandfather. This story has several events that take place to show the racial tension such as when Lefty picks Bud up off the side of the road and explains how dangerous it is for a black boy to be walking the streets in the middle of the night, and the fact that Mr. Calloway has land that he owns that is under a white man’s name because black people can’t own property. This story is intriguing and causes readers to continue reading in hopes of seeing Bud succeed. This story has won some prestigious awards including the Coretta Scott King Award and the John Newberry Medal. The author states that the story is fiction but is based upon some real people and events of this time period.