Book Review: Bud, Not Buddy

A Book Review by Mookie, age 10

Bud Not Buddy, by Christopher P. Curtis, takes place in Flint, Michigan.  Bud, the main character, is an African American boy who is only ten years old but still has lots of adventures.  I thought the author did a wonderful job of writing this book.

Bud’s mom has died and his father is gone but his mom left him one clue about his dad. The clue is a blue flyer with a famous music band on the front.  When Bud is sent to a foster home he is certain that to find his Dad he must escape, but it’s hard because his foster parents are really mean to him.  When he does escape he must go to the city of Grand Rapids, so he tries to jump on a train but it goes too fast and he misses it.   When he finds another way to Grand Rapids, he meets Herman E. Calloway, the famous band player from his blue flyer.  Bud thinks Herman is his dad so he’s really surprised when Herman turns out to be his grandfather.  Finally, Bud has a family.

The way the author described the characters made them seem real.  Everybody says that Bud is skinny, but Bud always answers, “I’m not skinny, I’m just wiry.”  I felt like I knew Bud more because Bud had written his own book, and he quotes from it.

“Rules and Things Number 327: When you make up your mind to do something, hurry up and do it, if you wait, you might talk yourself out of what you wanted in the first place.”

I was excited about what would happen next because Bud went on so many adventures, like the time his foster parents locked him in the shed and he got attacked by hornets and had to break the window to get out. I don’t think the author did a good job describing the setting because when Bud is in the city, I had to imagine everything about it.  He doesn’t give any descriptions about the places or the landscape.  This book was inspiring to me because I’m as old as Bud is in the book, so I feel like I can survive all of the adventures that he did.  Bud, Not, Buddy is a book I would love to read again.

Mookie wrote this book report with the help of this ebook.  It was her first attempt at a book report (or non-fiction writing in general), and she worked on it independently until the last stage of revision.  She loved this book and wanted to share her review!