Bud, Not Buddy/Sounder by Christopher Paul Curtis/William H. Armstrong

Bud, a ten-year-old African-American child, lives in and travels alone throughout urban Michigan in the 1930s. He experiences big-city life, including food lines, homelessness, and police officers with billy clubs, and overcomes racist and discriminatory situations. As Bud matures, he realizes that having a family is truly one of the most important treasures in life. He searches for his father and ultimately finds his grandfather. Bud, Not Buddy uses common themes found in young adult literature, including having the hope to survive difficult situations, family, independence, and self-discovery.

A young African-American boy from a poor sharecropping family in the South looks for and finds his dog, which disappeared at the same time that the boy’s father was arrested. After his father is convicted of the crime and sentenced to hard labor, the boy searches for his father by traveling the roads and inspecting the lines of criminals. His search leads him to a teacher who helps the boy become a literate young man. Sounder deals with the search for what has been lost and considers love for family members and for pets. Themes include the need to have courage and hope for the future, the importance of family, and the importance of reading and education.

About the Series:

Novel/Drama curriculum units contain complete lesson plans with preliminary and follow-up work, teacher notes with plot summary, background, and rationale, ready-to-use worksheets, and suggested answers for student questions. These study guides encourage the development of thinking, reading, speaking, research, and writing skills as well as critical thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.