Module 3/SLIS 5420/September 14th
Bud, Not Buddy
by Christopher Paul Curtis

Bibliography
Curtis, C. (2002) Bud, Not Buddy. New York: Yearling. (Original work published in 1999). ISBN: 0-440-41328-1

Summary
Bud Caldwell may only be ten years old, but he’s learned a lifetime of lessons about how to survive in a world that often isn’t fair. The Depression wasn’t an easy time for anyone growing up; but add that to being black and your mother dying at age six, and you find out what hard times are real fast. But Bud hasn’t lost hope of a better life or finding his father and now he is finally old enough to follow the clues his mother has left behind.

My Impression
Bud’s emotional journey is far longer than the physical one that takes place in the story. He is a very resourceful and polite young man in spite of the harsh hand life has dealt him. He doesn’t always make the wisest choices but you can’t help but root for Bud as he encounters tough situations along the way on his quest to find his father. The author reveals Bud’s world through details and language, allowing the reader to experience Bud's constant struggle of survival, his courage, and the hope he refuses to lose sight of by keeping his mother’s memory alive.

Reviews

Library Journal
Gr 4-7-Motherless Bud shares his amusingly astute rules of life as he hits the road to find the jazz musician he believes is his father. A medley of characters brings Depression-era Michigan to life. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Booklist
Gr. 4^-6. Bud, 10, is on the run from the orphanage and from yet another mean foster family. His mother died when he was 6, and he wants to find his father. Set in Michigan during the Great Depression, this is an Oliver Twist kind of foundling story, but it's told with affectionate comedy, like the first part of Curtis' The Watsons Go to Birmingham (1995). On his journey, Bud finds danger and violence (most of it treated as farce), but more often, he finds kindness--in the food line, in the library, in the Hooverville squatter camp, on the road--until he discovers who he is and where he belongs. Told in the boy's naive, desperate voice, with lots of examples of his survival tactics ("Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar out of Yourself"), this will make a great read-aloud. --Hazel Rochman

Publishers Weekly
A 10-year-old boy in Depression-era Michigan sets out to find the man he believes to be his father. "While the harshness of Bud's circumstances are authentically depicted, Curtis imbues them with an aura of hope, and he makes readers laugh even when he sets up the most daunting scenarios," said PW in our Best Books citation. Ages 9-12. (Jan.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.


Suggested Activities

Bud, Not Buddy could simply be used as a read aloud as it has distinctive story language which is sure to encourage lively discussion. There are definitely moments that lend to laughter and others that are quite touching.

At one point of the story, the Librarian shows Bud how to use an atlas and determine the distances between cities. Using the cities and states written on the rocks in the story, students could practice map and math skills to ascertain the miles between points and the time it would take to reach each destination.

The story describes instruments of the boys in Calloway’s band and Bud’s fascination with the music they produced. This book could be used as an introduction to research on instruments and or music of the time period.

Module 3/SLIS 5420/September 14th
Goin’ Someplace Special
by Patricia C. McKissack

Bibliography

McKissack, P. (2001). Goin’ Someplace Special. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. (Original work published 1944). ISBN-0-689-81885-8

Summary
Tricia Ann, sets out on her first adventure alone to someplace special. She has been there lots of times but never alone and there are lots of rules about where you can and can’t go when you’re a young African American girl in 1950. She gets discouraged along the way and nearly turns back but when she recalls the words of her Grandmother it gives her the courage to continue to her destination.

My Impression
This Coretta Scott King Award and 2003-2004 Bluebonnet winner paints a vivid picture for the reader of a time most of us find hard to imagine. We can feel the emotional roller coaster that Tricia Ann rides on her journey to someplace special and empathize with her dilemma. It is a story about a time we would rather not think about but we should never forget and it ends in the perfect place.

Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
McKissack draws from her childhood in Nashville for this instructive picture book. "I don't know if I'm ready to turn you loose in the world," Mama Frances tells her granddaughter when she asks if she can go by herself to "Someplace Special" (the destination remains unidentified until the end of the story). 'Tricia Ann does obtain permission, and begins a bittersweet journey downtown, her pride battered by the indignities of Jim Crow laws. She's ejected from a hotel lobby and snubbed as she walks by a movie theater ("Colored people can't come in the front door," she hears a girl explaining to her brother. "They got to go 'round back and sit up in the Buzzard's Roost"). She almost gives up, but, buoyed by the encouragement of adult acquaintances ("Carry yo'self proud," one of her grandmother's friends tells her from the Colored section on the bus), she finally arrives at Someplace Special a place Mama Frances calls "a doorway to freedom" Ages 4-8. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
Gr 3-5-'Tricia Ann's first solo trip out of her neighborhood reveals the segregation of 1950s' Nashville and the pride a young African-American girl takes in her heritage and her sense of self-worth. In an eye-opening journey, McKissack takes the child through an experience based upon her own personal history and the multiple indignities of the period. She experiences a city bus ride and segregated parks, restaurants, hotels, and theaters and travels toward "Someplace Special." Dialogue illustrates her confidence and intelligence as she bravely searches for truth in a city of Jim Crow signs. A thought-provoking story for group sharing and independent readers. Mary Elam, Forman Elementary School, Plano, TX Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Suggested Activities
I would use this book as a read aloud with 2nd-5th graders:

With Second and Third graders I would ask the students to retell in sequence the places that Tricia Ann visited and then have them work in groups to create maps to show the route she took from Grandma’s to someplace special.

For Fourth and Fifth grade students it would serve as a good introduction to discussion and teaching research skills for studying the civil rights movement.