Bud, Not Buddy
Christopher Paul Curtis
 "Bud, and Not Buddy" is the story of ten-year old Bud Caldwell, an orphan living in Flint, Michigan in 1936 during the Great Depression. Since the death of his mother, years earlier, Bud has been living in an orphanage, as well as short stints in several foster homes. All he has of his mother are a bag of rocks and a photograph of his momma as a child and fliers that show Herman E. Calloway and his jazz band, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression. The story opens with Bud being placed with a new foster family, the Amoses, where Bud soon meets Todd Amos, their tormenting twelve year old son. After a fight with Todd, Bud is forced to spend the night in the garden shed, and in the morning they would bring him back to the orphanage.In the shed he is stung by hornets. This happens by cutting the hornets' nest after thinking it was a vampire bat and hitting it with a rake. After extricating himself from the shed, Bud takes revenge on Todd by causing him to wet the bed, and with his friend Bugs from the orphanage, finds the Flint Hooverville. Their stay does not last beyond the next morning, when the men and boys attempt to board a freight train heading west and in their absence Hooverville is torched. After this fiasco, Bud determines to seek out Herman E. Calloway, believing the man is his father. With suitcase in hand, Bud starts walking the 120 miles to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Along the way, he is picked up by Lefty Lewis from Grand Rapids, on his way to Flint. Bud tells him that he was running away from his home in Grand Rapids, and Lewis agrees to drive him back to Grand Rapids the following day. Bud stays the night in Lewis' daughter's house and the next morning has breakfast with Lefty, his daughter and her two children. Lefty drives Bud to the club where the Dusky Devastators are currently performing, and Bud manages to convince the band to allow him to stay at their home, despite Calloway's reluctance to acknowledge Bud as his son. The band takes Bud under their collective wing, and he comes with them on tour. After their first concert together, he notices Calloway picking up a rock and writing the date and location of the concert on it. When Bud shows Calloway the rocks that Bud's mother kept, Calloway accuses him of stealing them from his house. The other band members intervene, and upon further questioning, the adults realize that Bud's mother is Calloway's estranged daughter, making Bud his long-lost grandson.