The Return of Buddy Bush

Author - Shelia P. Moses ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Hardcover Book item from Margaret K. McElderry was reviewed on 16-Oct-2008.

Search ISBN:0689874316 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. The Return of Buddy Bush Reference Book. Classifications : 1900s Fiction United States History & Historical Fiction Children's Books Subjects Books General Issues Children's Books Subjects Books Fiction Multigenerational Family Life People & Places Children's . Click the following link to view the cover of The Return of Buddy Bush.

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1) Hardcover Book The Return of Buddy Bush by Margaret K. McElderry. In this sequel to "The Legend of Buddy Bush," the Coretta Scott King Award winner and National Book Award finalist, young Pattie Mae goes to Harlem to visit her sister and look for her uncle Buddy. Wrongly accused of raping a white woman, Buddy narrowly escaped a lynching in 1947. Now, Pattie Mae wants him to come home and vindicate himself.

An authentic, fictional voice about historical events, for older adolescents and adults.¤

2) Hardcover Book The Return of Buddy Bush by Margaret K. McElderry. I read "The Legend of Buddy Bush" and I was happy when the sequel was released.
This book is equally a great book for people of all ages.
I can not wait for a third sequel.¤

3) Hardcover Book The Return of Buddy Bush by Margaret K. McElderry. Sometimes sequels to children´s books are obvious. You reach the end of the story and it is clear as crystal that the author only wrote the first book with the clear intention of making a sequel (or series) should the demand arise. Then there are books like, "The Return of Buddy Bush". If you read Sheila P. Moses´s first novel for the kiddies, "The Legend of Buddy Bush" then you are familiar with her work. "The Legend" was a lovely little article containing three-dimensional characters, a narrator with more personality than half the people living in America today, and a story that gave the entire genre of historical fiction a jolt in the arm. It was not, however, an obvious candidate for a sequel. By the end of the tale this reader (and obviously I do not speak for others) was left feeling that Moses had said all that was needed to be said. I am alone in this thought, though, since after the publication of "The Legend", Moses was inundated with requests for more information. Says the author herself, "At every turn, strangers questioned me about Buddy Bush and his legend... they asked the big question: Where is Buddy Bush? That is when I realized that my work was not finished". So out of a clear blue sky I was handed a copy of this new book to my complete and utter amazement. And while "The Return of Buddy Bush" doesn´t hold a candle to its predecessor, it´s still a fairly good read and a better historical note than most stuff assigned to the kiddies in school today.

Not a lot of time has passed since Pattie Mae´s Uncle Buddy Bush was wrongfully arrested for the supposed "rape" of a white woman and almost lynched by seven clumsy Klan members. Having escaped to the North, Pattie Mae hasn´t seen him since and she´s devastated. On top of that, her beloved grandpa is dead and the family is in deep mourning. Soon Pattie Mae and her sister Barjean will be traveling up north so that the girl can see Harlem for the first time. She´s thrilled of course, but she has bigger plans than that. She´s going to find Uncle Buddy and convince him to come back down to Rich Square, North Carolina to stand trial and (she believes) witnesss the prosecution of the men who tried to lynch him. The only thing is, Pattie Mae has a little too much faith in the justice of her hometown.

In Moses´s first book, Pattie Mae comes across as adoring the men in her family and despising the women. Credit the author with consistency then. Pattie Mae´s love of Uncle Buddy and her now dead grandfather is stronger than ever and her dislike and distaste with her female relations is thicker still. I had a lot of problems with Pattie Mae in this book. It seems to me that a twelve-year-old girl growing up in North Carolina in the late 40s is going to understand some basic injustices. Pattie Mae is convinced that the men who tried to lynch her uncle will be brought to swift justice and then is shocked SHOCKED when they get off scott free. Huh? Even a girl as sheltered as Pattie Mae should comprehend how unfair life is at that point in time. As a person, Pattie Mae also does some truly foolish and downright dumb things. Her sister leaves her alone in an apartment in Harlem with the strict instructions that she should not leave the home. So Pattie Mae decides to walk around Harlem and find her uncle. And of course EVERYONE she talks to knows him and she locates him in no time at all. Hunhuna? One of the frustrations of the book is that Pattie Mae does exactly as she pleases (sometimes placing herself in danger) and never faces any consequences whatsoever.

The book also drops Pattie Mae´s resistance to her uncle leaving again. When they first leave Harlem together she´s convinced that she´ll find a way to make Buddy stay in Rich Square, North Carolina. By the time Buddy´s on his way out, however, she never makes so much as a peep of objection. Is this because she´s learned something about the white people of the South? Has she come to some kind of internal understanding? We never know because the subject, so important to Pattie Mae at the beginning of the book, is dropped entirely by the end.

I laud the predecessor, but there was one detail in "The Legend of Buddy Bush" that drove people absolutely bonkers. In the book, Pattie Mae´s grandfather acquires a yellow telephone. But of course, yellow telephones weren´t exactly sold to the general public back in the 40s. This little detail has led some librarians to refer to the title as "the yellow telephone book". If Ms. Moses ever heard this criticism, I´m not certain, but she does make a big point in the book once more that the telephone was yellow. Kind of a whatchagonnadoboutit response. Otherwise, the book seems fairly faithful to the times. I dunno. I´m no historian myself and there may be all sorts of problems rife in this novel. What I can tell you is that for all my complaints, "The Return of Buddy Bush" is still a righteous read. It´s great for reluctant readers and kids who normally don´t care two-bits for historical fiction. And for all my objections about what Pattie Mae does and doesn´t do, this would be an excellent book club read for any group of 8 to 12 year-olds. There is plenty to talk about in this novel. It may not quite reach the heights of its predecessor, but it still makes an interesting title. Better than most but not the author´s best.¤

4) Hardcover Book The Return of Buddy Bush by Margaret K. McElderry. First introduced in Shelia P. Moses´ award-winning The Legend of Buddy Bush, Pattie Mae Sheals continues her journey in The Return of Buddy Bush. Pattie Mae goes to Harlem to visit her sister after the death of their beloved grandfather and the disappearance of Uncle Buddy, who has been wrongly accused of a terrible crime. Harlem could not be more different from Rich Square, North Carolina-people speak differently, people dress differently, and black men and women work and run their own businesses, just like any white man would do. Harlem is magical to Pattie Mae, and a chance meeting with the black writer Richard Wright fully opens her eyes to the fact that anything is possible in her future.

Pattie Mae is not only determined to soak up the Northern lifestyle, but she is on a secret mission to find her uncle. The rumors are that he is hiding out in Harlem, so Pattie Mae wants to bring him back. In her innocence she believes that once Uncle Buddy returns, he can have a fair trial and prove once and for all that he did nothing wrong.

What Pattie Mae learns about life and opportunity, and what Uncle Buddy learns about family and justice, are at the heart of this rich and unforgettable novel.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 13-Nov-2008, 06898743169780689874314, 840-960-590-160-851-391-8

The Return of Buddy Bush, Book, Image © Margaret K. McElderry

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