Ever since his mother died four years earlier, ten-year-old Bud Caldwell has been carrying around a small suitcase containing her mementos: a photo of his mother as a child, small stones with dates and places written on them, and a collection of old flyers advertising concerts by Herman E. Calloway’s jazz band. Bud isn’t sure what any of it means but he’s certain that it holds clues to the identity of his father, someone he’s determined to find after he runs away from the miserable foster home in which he was placed. Bud’s adventures on and off the road in Depression-era Michigan are told in a charming hyperbolic narrative, filled with humor and insight. Details of African-American social history are skillfully woven into the action-packed story which is sure to be a hit with young readers. Honor book: CCBC Coretta Scott King Author Award Discussion. (Ages 8-13)

Hit the road with Bud in this Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award-winning classic about a boy on a journey to find his father—from Christopher Paul Curtis, recipient of the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.
 
It’s 1936, in Flint Michigan. Times may be hard, and ten-year-old Bud may be a motherless boy on the run, but Bud’s got a few things going for him:

1. He has his own suitcase full of special things.
2. He’s the author of Bud Caldwell’s Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself.
3. His momma never told him who his father was, but she left a clue: flyers advertising Herman E. Calloway and his famous band, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression!!!!!!
 
Bud’s got an idea that those flyers will lead him to his father. Once he decides to hit the road to find this mystery man, nothing can stop him—not hunger, not fear, not vampires, not even Herman E. Calloway himself.

“[A] powerfully felt novel.” —The New York Times