Bud (like a plant, not short for 'Buddy', as he determinedly tells everyone) is a motherless boy on the run. He's determined to find his father but doesn't really know where to start. The only clue his late mother left him was a bunch of flyers about Herman E Calloway and his famous jazz band, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression! Bud's search for his dad is a tough one but just occasionally he hits a note as high as even the Dusky Devastators can play! A superbly entertaining, prize-winning novel.
Bud is on a journey. He has hit the road with one idea in mind - he wants to discover his father. He's not got a lot to go on - just a flyer for a jazz band and his very own Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself. Despite encounters with a car-driving vampire, a monster-infested woodshed and even a real live girl, Bud presses on towards a surprising discovery...
Readers will be instantly engaged by Bud's heartwarming, funny and fast-moving story in this award-winning novel set in 1930s America.
'Bud's fresh voice keeps the sentimentality to a minimum, and the story zips along in step with Bud's own panache' Horn Book
'The rich blend of tall tale, slapstick, sorrow, and sweetness has the wry, teasing warmth of family folklore' Booklist
