From: Cathy Sullivan Seblonka <cathys>
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 15:00:58 -0500 (EST)

I thoroughly enjoyed "Bud, Not Buddy." Bud is such a resourceful kid. He's intelligent and very funny, although he doesn't realize this. It's a very moving picture of family, love, belonging, longing, loss and pain. I appreciated that one of the few adults Bud can turn to for help is a librarian. That he trusts librarians is a testament to his mother's love for him as expressed in the pleasure/joy they found together in story and in visiting the library.

I went to college in Flint and often drove the "back way" home, passing through Owosso. As a work study student, one of my supervisors had had a grandfather who had been a judge living in Owosso decades and decades ago. One of the professors at the college had coauthored a book about an incident in Michigan's history in which my supervisor's grandfather figured. The portrait was not complimentary. My supervisor was very pleased and said that this professor was the first person to mention the truth about his grandfather and the hugely racist culture of that particular area. I grew up in the North hearing about racism as a Southern problem. I am glad Christopher Paul Curtis has the courage to write about the deeply imbedded racism of the North, especially as found in the friendly small towns of America. Until we name a wrong and admit ownership of it, we cannot work to heal it. Perhaps a wonderful story such as Bud, Not Buddy will serve as a wake up call for the rest of us to recognize and examine our own prejudices and intolerance.

Cathy Sullivan Seblonka Youth Services Coordinator Peter White Public Library
Received on Wed 26 Jan 2000 02:00:58 PM CST