Bud, Not Buddy

Bud's rules are called 'Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself.' Why does Curtis include 'Making a Better Liar' in the title? Is Bud actually a liar — and if so, is that a problem?

Bud consistently uses non-standard grammar ('funner,' 'worser,' 'I knowed'). Curtis is a careful writer. Are these mistakes — or choices? What do they do for the novel?

The novel is set in 1936 during the Great Depression, but Curtis never lectures about the Depression. How does he show the Depression without explaining it?

Bud is certain Calloway is his father based on very thin evidence — some flyers his mother kept. Is this reasonable? Why does Curtis make the evidence so thin?

When Lefty Lewis offers Bud a sandwich, he doesn't ask for an explanation or a thank-you first. He just asks 'Are you hungry?' Why does this small thing matter so much in context?

The Dusky Devastators of the Depression — Dirty Deed, Doo-Doo Bug, Steady Eddie, Shoes — all have nicknames with origin stories. Why does Curtis give us these etymologies? What does naming do in this novel?

Calloway is cold and dismissive when Bud arrives. By the end of the novel, he takes Bud in. Did he change? Or did the reader's understanding of him change?

Steady Eddie tells Bud to practice scales until his fingers know them without his brain. What does this mean for music — and what might it mean for something else in the novel?

The novel is told in first person, but Curtis gives us more information than Bud has — particularly about the rocks. How does the author create this effect within a first-person narration?

Bud misses the train that Bugs gets on. Bugs disappears from the novel entirely. Why does Curtis leave this loose end unresolved?

The rules are described as coming from Bud himself — he invented them. But where do you think they actually come from? Use textual evidence.

Jazz appears throughout the novel as a metaphor for belonging and craft. What specifically does jazz represent — and why is it jazz rather than another kind of music?

Calloway's memorial rock practice — collecting and labeling a stone from every town where he plays — is one of the most unusual habits in the novel. What does it tell us about him before we know what the rocks mean?

Bud describes adults who say 'don't worry' as a signal that you should worry. Can you think of other rules that work by inverting adult assurances? What does this pattern say about Bud's experience with adults?

The title is 'Bud, Not Buddy.' His name is Bud. He insists on this throughout the novel. Why does being called by his name matter so much to him — and why does Curtis make this the title?

Compare the Amos household to the band's household. Both are places Bud lives. What makes them different, and what does the difference say about what 'home' actually means?

The novel is set in 1936, but Bud's experience — aging out of foster care, moving between placements, having no advocate — is not specific to the Depression. Is this a historical novel or a contemporary novel set in the past?

Why does Lefty Lewis bring Bud to his daughter's house rather than dropping him at a shelter or the police? What does this choice reveal about Lefty, and about the novel's argument?

Curtis won both the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award for this novel. Both awards were created to recognize different things. What does winning both say about how this book works — what it does for literature broadly and for Black American literature specifically?

Bud's final note on the saxophone is described as 'not music yet, but a start.' Why does Curtis choose to end on potential rather than achievement? How would the novel be different if Bud played something beautiful?

Calloway has been collecting memorial rocks for his daughter Grace for decades. When Bud appears with those rocks, it means Grace is dead. How does Curtis prepare the reader for Calloway's breakdown without telegraphing it?

The Great Depression forced many families apart. Curtis's novel is about family being found and rebuilt. What is he saying about the relationship between economic hardship and family? Does poverty destroy family or create different kinds of family?

Compare Bud to Huckleberry Finn: both are children on the road in America, both are narrated in a child's vernacular, both encounter American cruelty and American kindness. What does Curtis's version say that Twain's doesn't?

The hornets' nest scene in the shed is one of the funniest scenes in the novel. It's also a child alone in the dark, locked in a garden shed, without any adult who will come if something goes wrong. How does Curtis hold both of these things at once?

Bud has been carrying the rocks without knowing what they mean for four years. When he learns their meaning, does he feel he was deceived by his mother — or does he feel something else? Use evidence from the text.

Lefty Lewis is transporting blood for injured union workers while also transporting Bud to Grand Rapids. Why does Curtis write these two journeys — one political, one personal — into the same car?

The band's Depression-era touring involves navigating which hotels will take them, which restaurants will serve them, which towns are safe. Curtis renders this through logistics, not protest. Why this choice?

If you were to update Bud, Not Buddy to 2026, what would change and what wouldn't? What would the Depression equivalent be? What would Calloway's band be?

Curtis named his protagonist 'Bud' — which turns out to be what Calloway called Grace, his daughter. Did Bud's mother name him after his grandfather's name for her? What does this suggest about what she wanted for Bud?

Read Rule #3 ('If You Got to Cry, Cry, But Make Sure You Stop Before You Throw Up') alongside Rule #16 ('If an Adult Tells You Not to Worry...') and any two other rules. Write an analysis of what these rules collectively reveal about what Bud has learned about surviving as a child without family protection.