Bud, Not Buddy

Curtis, C. P. (1999). Bud, not buddy. New York, New York: Delacorte Press.

This book is about a ten-year-old boy named Bud. It takes place in Flint, Michigan in 1936, the time of the Great Depression. He is on a journey to find his father and does so with the help of different clues that his mother left him. These clues include flyers of a musician named Herman E. Calloway. It is a surprisingly humorous book despite the fact that it takes place in such a somber time in US History. The characters are vibrant and Bud is an incredibly likable character who learns some hard lessons about identity on his path to finding his father.

I think this book would be interesting to use for a unit about identity. I think middle school is such a crucial time in the lives of students and it's important to address the question of, "Who am I?" Bud does this all throughout the book. It could be an interesting exercise to ask the students to pinpoint different parts of the novel where a piece of his identity is revealed and have group discussions about what makes him discover this. Then it would be interesting to have the students write a bit about their own journey to discovering themselves.