5th

Grade Novel Study

Summary:


Winner of the Newbery Award
Coretta Scott King Award

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 filled with his own important, secret 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 of 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
and find this mystery man, nothing can stop him--not hunger, not fear, not vampires, not even
Herman E. Calloway himself.

Bud, Not Buddy is full of laugh-out-loud humor and wonderful characters, hitting the high notes
of jazz and sounding the deeper tones of the Great Depression. Once again Christopher Paul
Curtis, author of the award-winning novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham1963, takes readers
on a heartwarming and unforgettable journey.

(NOBODY BUT CURTIS | Christopher Paul Curtis Books)

Meet the Author:

Christopher Paul Curtis was born and reared in Flint, Michigan. After high school graduation, he
worked on the assembly line of the Fisher Body Plant/Flint Plant No. 1 and graduated from the
Flint branch of the University of Michigan. His first book, The Watsons Go to Birmingham -
1963, received a Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor book citation in 1996, and Bud,
Not Buddy received the Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award in 2000.

His most recent book Elijah of Buxton won a Newbery Honor, the Coretta Scott King Author
Award, and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction in 2008. "This novel came to me in a
way that was far different than any other," states Curtis. "From the word 'go' Elijah and I
became close friends. When I'd go to the library to write, it was as if he were anxiously waiting
for me, waiting to tell about his life, his worries, his adventures."
Christopher Paul Curtis lives with his wife and two children in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

(Christopher Paul Curtis's Biography | [Link])

Theme:

Perseverance

If you liked this

Zane the Hurricane: Zane Dupree is a charismatic 12-year-old boy of mixed race visiting a relative in
New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hits. Unexpectedly separated from all family, Zane and his dog
experience the terror of Katrina's wind, rain, and horrific flooding. Facing death, they are rescued from
an attic air vent by a kind, elderly musician and a scrappy young girl--both African American. The chaos
that ensues as storm water drowns the city, shelter and food vanish, and police contribute to a
dangerous, frightening atmosphere, creates a page-turning tale that completely engrosses the reader.
(Zane and the Hurricane by Rodman Philbrick | [Link])

Elijah of Buxton: The first child born into freedom in Buxton, Canada, a settlement of runaway slaves
just over the border from Detroit, Elijah is best known in his hometown as the boy who threw up on
Frederick Douglass. (Not on purpose, of course he was just a baby then!) But things change when a
former slave calling himself the Right Reverend Zephariah W. Connerly the Third steals money from
Elijah's friend Mr. Leroy, who has been saving to buy his family out of captivity in the south. Elijah joins
Mr. Leroy on a dangerous journey to America in pursuit of the disreputable preacher, and he discovers
firsthand the unimaginable horrors of the life his parents fled a life from which he'll always be free, if
he can find the courage to go back home. (Elijah of Buxton)

My Name is not Friday: Well-mannered Samuel and his mischievous younger brother Joshua are free
black boys living in an orphanage during the end of the Civil War. Samuel takes the blame for Joshua's
latest prank, and the consequence is worse than he could ever imagine. He's taken from the orphanage
to the South, given a new name Friday and sold into slavery. What follows is a heartbreaking but
hopeful account of Samuel's journey from freedom, to captivity, and back again. (My Name is Not Friday
by Jon Walter | [Link])

Wonder: August Pullman is not an ordinary ten-year-old kid. Sure, he's a huge Star Wars fan, he loves
his dog, and he's got a pretty good sense of humor. But August was born with a craniofacial abnormality,
a genetic defect that caused his facial features to be severely deformed. His life has never been
"normal."Despite his differences, August and his parents decide to transition him from home school to
private school now that he's entering fifth grade. It's the start of middle school, they reason, so
everyone will be new. But August has to deal with so much more than just being new. Will he make
friends? Will he decide to stay at the school? And can the people around him learn to see past his
appearance? (Wonder by R.J. Palacio | [Link])

Hatchet: Brian is on his way to Canada to visit his estranged father when the pilot of his small prop plane
suffers a heart attack. Brian is forced to crash-land the plane in a lake, and finds himself stranded in the
remote Canadian wilderness with only his clothing and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present
before his departure. Brian had been distraught over his parents' impending divorce and the secret he
carries about his mother, but now he is truly desolate and alone. Exhausted, terrified, and hungry, Brian
struggles to find food and make a shelter for himself. He has no special knowledge of the woods, and he
must find a new kind of awareness and patience as he meets each day's challenges (Hatchet by Gary
Paulsen | [Link])

Reading Schedule:

Week

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

Friday

Introduction

Ch.1
Read aloud

Ch.2-3
Silent read

Ch.4
Real aloud

Ch.5-6
Silent read

Ch.7
Read aloud

Ch.8-9
Silent read

Ch.10
Read aloud

Ch.11-12
Silent read

Ch.13
Read aloud

Ch.14-15
Silent read

Ch.16
Read aloud

Ch.17-18
Silent read

Ch. 19
Read aloud

Assessment