BUD, NOT BUDDY
By Chistopher Paul Curtis
Scholastic, 1999
Category: Middle-grade fiction
Occasionally I realize that there are piles and piles of fabulous children’s books in the world that I have not read yet. Take this list of 100 Best Children’s Books. I have only read sixty-five of them … and several of those were read more than twenty years ago! But I try not to let the idea of unread “best books” bother me. Instead, I focus on how cool it is that there are hundreds upon hundreds of powerful, meaningful, life-altering books out there just waiting for me to find them.
Which brings me to BUD, NOT BUDDY by Christopher Paul Curtis. The chidren’s literature world heaped praises on BUD, NOT BUDDY back in 2000, when it was awarded both a Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award. It has taken six years for the book to cross my path; now that it has it will forever be on my list of favorites.
I read BUD, NOT BUDDY out loud with my boys. They were intrigued from the very first chapter, when ten-year-old Bud Caldwell (don’t call him Buddy) is taken in by a foster family … a mean foster family. After enduring a pencil up his nose, false accusations of a bed-wetting habit, and a few scary hours locked in a shed, Bud runs away. Where he goes and how he manages to get there is a story of courage and spunk that we won’t soon forget.
I hope this book finds its way into your hands soon!