Ten-year-old Bud Caldwell is an orphan living in Flint, Michigan during The Great Depression. After running away from his cruel foster family, he goes looking for his Disappeared Dad, whom he never knew. His only lead is a set of flyers he inherited from his mother advertising a musician named Herman E. Calloway. Bud thinks Calloway is his father and sets off to meet him, along with his suitcase of worldly possessions.
Bud, Not Buddy contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Mrs. Amos slaps Bud for "provoking" Todd's asthma, and Mr. Amos locks the young boy in the shed overnight before planning to return him to the orphanage.
- Briar Patching: Bud's foster parents threaten to send him back to the Home, and Bud begs them not to. He doesn't want to go back, exactly, but he's hoping that by tricking them into thinking that being sent back is a terrible punishment, he'll prevent them from doing something that would really make him miserable. He even brings up the Trope Namer while discussing this.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Being a novel written in The '90s that takes place during The Great Depression and centers around a black protagonist, this is par for the course. Bud encounters a decent amount of racism throughout his journey, although it is somewhat filtered by the fact that he's still ten years old and lives in the more integrated northern USA rather than in the southern parts that were still practicing segregation.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: While he doesn't get the answers he was seeking with regards to his Disappeared Dad, Bud does find a genuine family with the band and gets to meet his grandfather, who is happy to know that he at least has some surviving family.
- Education Papa: Herman E. Calloway was determined that his daughter would go to college and become a teacher. He pushed her hard to the point of burnout and never gave her the opportunity to decide for herself what her dreams were. Eventually, she ran away, and he never heard from her for the next eleven years until her son showed up.
- First Kiss: Bud shares an awkward kiss with a girl in a shantytown. He doesn't particularly enjoy it but is glad he had the experience.
- Foster Kid: Bud is in his third foster home by the time he runs away, and all of them are pretty terrible. He prefers the Home, which isn't exactly an Orphanage of Love but is still much more pleasant than foster care.
- Furniture Blockade: Bud is sleeping in the bedroom of Angela Calloway, who he mistakenly thinks died as a child. He blocks the doorknob with a chair to keep her ghost out.
- Heads or Tails?: Bud and his orphanage friend Bugs arrive at a Hooverville
and can't agree on who should have to go in and ask for help. Bugs flips a coin, saying, "Heads I Win, Tails You Lose," gets tails, and sends Bud in. - Inelegant Blubbering: Upon learning that Bud's mother was his daughter Angela, Herman Calloway retreats to his room and sobs uncontrollably on the bed.
- Kids Driving Cars: Attempted. Bud is walking through the countryside late at night when Mr. Lewis, who is transporting blood to a hospital, gives him a lift. Bud sees the blood, thinks Mr. Lewis is a vampire, and tries to drive off in the car. Mr. Lewis is terrified to be left stranded near a sundown town, where he could be arrested or killed if anyone sees him. Luckily Bud doesn't know how the gear shift works, so the car comes to a stop a short distance later.
- Long-Lost Relative: Bud is eventually united with Herman E. Calloway, who turns out to be not his father, but his grandfather.
- Luke, You Are My Father: Bud tells Herman E. Calloway and his band that he's Calloway's son. The others react with amusement and disbelief until they see the rocks he inherited. Then it turns out Herman is actually Bud's grandfather.
- Potty Failure: Bud's foster parents are convinced that he's a bed-wetter and make him sleep on foul-smelling rubber sheets. Before he leaves, he gets revenge by pouring warm water onto his foster brother Todd's pajamas, which causes him to wet the bed for real.
- Putting the Pee in Pool: At the YMCA, one of the employees announces that the pool has been treated with a special chemical that turns bright red on contact with urine and causes severe burns. The employee warns that anyone who pees in the pool will be sent to the hospital, then jail, and will be banned from ever using any other swimming pool in the world for the rest of his or her life. Bud is offended that the employee would even assume that he would pee in the pool in the first place.
- Scary Stinging Swarm: Bud's foster parents lock him in a shed for the night. He sees what he thinks is a vampire bat hanging from the ceiling and cuts it in half with a shovel so it won't bite him. It turns out to be a hornet's nest. The swarm attacks Bud, who manages to escape through a window before he's stung too many times.
- Spoiled Brat: Todd bullies Bud, easily beats him when they get in a fight, and then cries to his parents that Bud hit him for no reason. His parents are easily fooled by his constant lying, including his fake asthma attacks, and give him whatever he wants.
- Title Drop: Bud often introduces himself to people as "Bud, not Buddy."
- Tragic Keepsake: In addition to his flyers, Bud has some rocks with city names and dates carved on them that he found in his mother's drawer after she died. Herman E. Calloway has boxes of them that he gave to his daughter, and that she left behind when she ran away.
- Warm Water Whiz: How Bud gets Todd to wet his bed as payback for being a bully towards him.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Todd Amos fakes an asthma attack when his mother catches him beating up Bud, and pins the blame of starting the fight on Bud. Right before he leaves, Bud gets his revenge on Todd by pouring water on his pajama pants and making him wet the bed.
