From BookJive
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| Edition: | Laurel Leaf (Mass Market Paperback) |
| Author: | Christopher Paul Curtis |
| Published: | September 2004 |
| Pages: | 272 |
| ISBN 10: | 0553494104 |
| New: | $3.01 (48) |
| Used: | $2.63 (52) |
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In 1936, during the Great Depression, 10-year-old Bud Caldwell lives in the orphanage in Flint, Michigan that has been his home since his mother died when he was six. He hates the orphanage, but his situation does not improve when he is sent to live with a foster family, the Amoses, who prove to be abusive. Todd Amos, the Amoses' twelve year old son, shoves a pencil up Bud's nose and accuses him of bed wetting, which Mrs. Amos despises. To punish him, the Amoses lock Bud up in a shed, where he experiences a night full of childhood terror. Eventually, Bud escapes the shed and goes back to the house to gather his things. Before he leaves, Bud causes Todd to wet his bed to get even. He first tried his hand in warm water because when your hand hits hot water it makes you urinate, but it doesn't work so instead he pours the water on the bed, then ran.
Bud sets off in search of his father, who he has never met, knowing that the journey will be difficult because he does not know who the man is since he had left his mother when he was born. His only clue is a flyer advertising a jazz band that used to belong to Bud's mother, Angela Janet Caldwell. Bud aims for Grand Rapids, Michigan, convinced that the leader of the band, "Herman E. Calloway and the Dusky Devastators of the Depression" is the man he is looking for.
During his journey, he encounters several good samaritans, as well as experiencing racism. Upon arriving at the bar where Herman E. Calloway and his band are playing, Bud begins to tell his story. Soon, he is driven to Calloway and the band's house, where he looks around and finds several pictures of his mother. Bud notices, and is told by several other people, how Herman Calloway appears far too old to be his father, and discovers that the man is his grandfather.
The Calloway family accepted Bud wholeheartedly but Bud knows that he must be patient until his new-found grandfather can come to terms with all that has happened in his life.
