Me Llamo Bud, No Buddy Book

4.5

One of my husband's grandsons (the 5th grader) asked me if I'd read this book and when I said 'no' (I hadn't heard of it), he told me it was good. Well, if a boy, about to turn 11, takes the time to recommend a book to me, odds are I'm going to read it.

The voice of the 10-year-old, Bud (not Buddy), in this novel is irrepressible and the setting of Flint, Michigan, during the Depression comes to life with tons of details but not a one of them ponderous. While keeping its tone age-appropriate, there's no talking down to the reader or even the tying-up in a pretty bow of all the loose ends.

There's sadness (reality), of course, (one scene brought tears to my eyes, but that's from an adult's perspective) but most of it is just fun, and even funny. (There's one gross (to me) description of soda-backwash that I almost couldn't read, the kind of thing many boys seem to love.)

And though there's lots of heart to the story, there's no moralizing. As Bud says:

I'd learned that it was best to be asleep before Momma finished the story because if she got done and I was still awake, she'd always tell me what the story was about. I never told Momma, but that always ruint the fun of the story. Shucks, here I was thinking I was just hearing something funny about a fox or a dog and Momma spoilt it by telling me they were really lessons about not being greedy or wishing for things you couldn't have.

It was interesting to this adult to learn in the Afterword that two of the older characters were based on the author's grandfathers, one of whom pitched in the minors of the Negro Baseball Leagues, one of my interests.