Bud, Not Buddy Day #14

Again, not too much for today, and the Afterward includes its own pictures.  But I did want to show you again what Bud's newest ax looks like (we've seen this picture before) and what Steady Eddie gives him to take care of it.

 

Finally, remember what Christopher Paul Curtis says at the end of the Afterward.  Don't make the same mistake he did - that when his parents and grandparents woud start telling stories about their past, his eyes would glaze over and he'd think, "Oh, no, not those boring tall tales again!"  Listen.  Learn.  Learning from books and research is good, but learning from someone you love and respect is way better.

Bud, Not Buddy Day #13

There really isn't anything we need to know before reading today.  Just pay close attention to how they know for sure that Herman E. Calloway is who they suspect he is.  Also, think about why Mr. C. is acting the way he is.

Bud, Not Buddy Day #12

First of all, Bud uses his mop and mop water to act out scenes from Twenty Thousand Leaks Under the Sea.  It's actually the following book, originally published in 1869. 

 

The most important part of Chapter 17 is trying to understand the music that Bud is hearing.  Here are two videos.  The first one is a man named Duke Ellington and his orchestra playing a song called It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing).

Next is a video featuring Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong.  Listening to Ms. Holiday sing will give you an idea of what Miss Thomas may have sounded like.  And the beginning of the video sort of starts with Mr. Armstrong "saying" something with his trumpet and Ms. Holiday answering him.  (I'm not sure why the end gets cut off.)

Bud, Not Buddy Day #11

Here's a picture of the gift Bud receives from Steady Eddie and what's supposed to be inside.

 

Bud also received his first ax, as the band members would call it.

  

Finally, the French word for bone isn't really "la bone."  If the Thug was right, he would have said "bone" transates to "os," or "the bone" translates to "l'os."  So...Sleepy L'os.  Does that sound as good as Sleepy LaBone?

Bud, Not Buddy Day #10

Miss Thomas says "Dark or not, even Blind Lemon Jefferson could see something's wrong with this baby's eye."  Blind Lemon Jefferson was an actual person!  He was one of the most popular blues musicians of the 1920s.  He died in 1929, but any musician active in the 1930s would have known him.  Yes, he was blind, and he was born that way.

Bud continues to mention a tiny seed growing up into a mighty maple tree.  His tiny idea that Herman E. Calloway is his father has grown into something he actually believes with all his heart.  Here's a tiny seed (notice the blades of grass) and the mighty maple tree is could grow into (notice the tire swing):

 

In chapter 15 Bud is introduced to Grand Calloway Station which is named after Grand Central Station.  It is the largest train station in the world and about 125,000 people go through it each day.

Finally, here are the creatures that Bud was worried might come out of the closet doors.  Both Frankenstein and the Wolfman are from popular movies of the time.

 

Bud, Not Buddy Day #9

Believe it or not, and I know I was surprised, there is a Log Cabin restaurant in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  I don't know if it's the same one as in the book, but the real one has been there since 1938.  And just like there was a band in the Log Cabin when Bud got there, the Log Cabin today still has concerts.  From what I could figure out, Bud, Not Buddy takes place in 1936, but maybe Christopher Paul Curtis based the Log Cabin in his book on the one in real life.  Here it is:

Now imagine a Packard like this one parked out front.

Unfortunately, after a lot of searching, I couldn't find a restaurant called The Sweet Pea.

Bud, Not Buddy Day #8

When Bud thinks the cops have caught up with him, he compares them the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  The "Mounties" are the national police force of Canada, and their motto is "Defend the Law."  In the 1930s there was a series of children's books about them, and in the books the Mounties' motto was "They Always Fetch Their Man."

More gangsters from the 1930s.  Machine Gun Kelly and Al Capone.  Here they are:

 

Bud, Not Buddy Day #7

Lefty Lewis says that Bud has a head like a peanut.  He says Bud looks like "one of George Washington Carver's experiments sprouted legs and run off."  He then asks Bud if he's from Tuskegee, Alabama.  George Washington Carver was a famous African-American scientist from Tuskegee, Alabama who studies peanuts.  He found hundreds of uses for the peanut plant.  Here's a picture of George Washington Carver in his lab, the peanuts he experimented with, and what Bud might look like ... according to Lefty Lewis.

  

Later, Mrs. Sleet explains that her Mr. Sleet is a redcap for the railroad, while her husband is a Pullman porter.  Redcaps loaded the trains, and Pullman porters took care of passengers on the train.  Here is what a a redcap's red cap looked like and a photo of a Pullman porter.

 

Bud, Not Buddy Day #6

Another map.  Flint, Michigan to Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Here's a map of the way Bud would have traveled, including a dot on all the towns he'll have to travel through - Owosso, Ovid, St. Johns, Ionia, Lowell, and Grand Rapids.  A little shorter than going to Chicago, but still pretty long.


View Larger Map

And, I hate to scare you, but on Bud's travels he meets this guy:

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!  A Vampire!

Bud, Not Buddy Day #5

There are only a couple quick items for Day #5.  First, Bud and Bugs are offered "fine china" for their meal.  Fine china is super-fancy plates and dishes used in super-fancy meals.  Here's a picture of real fine china:

Now here's what Bud and Bugs were actually given.  Sardines are little fish that come in cans like you see first.  After the fish are gone, the cans were re-used as bowls, like the second picture.  Would you call this "fine china"?  Why would the people of Hooverville call them "fine china"?

 

So what's a mouth organ anyway?  One person (actually from yesterday's reading) is called mouth organ man.  Well, here it is:

Finally, what are "Commies"?  The police officers say the men wanting to board the train sound like Commies.  The simplest way to describe it is this:  Commies is short for Communists.  Communism is a form of government very different from the United States government, and many of the United States enemies have been Communist countries.  In a situation like what we read in the book, calling someone a Commie was an insult, like saying someone was anti-American.  It would be like saying, "What?  Are you saying you hate the United States of America?"

Bud, Not Buddy Day #4

Flint, Michigan to Chicago, Illinois?  270 miles?  54 hours of walking?  Let's take a look at the map...


View Larger Map

Bugs and Bud learn they need to go to Hooverville - at first they call it Hooperville by accident - in order to ride the rails west.  When they arrive, they learn that there are Hoovervilles all around the country and they are named after President Herbert Hoover.  The people who live there blame him for the situation they are in.  Here are some pictures of what a Hooverville looked like.  Notice that the first one is located right next to the train tracks.

 

Finally, here are two famous photographs from the Great Depression.  Do you think they show the emotions of people at the time, especially people like those Bud and Bugs meet?

 

Bud, Not Buddy Day #3

When Bud goes "on the lam," he mentions another name that fits with John Dillinger and J. Edgar Hoover.  He says "I was crouching down, sneaking along the street like Pretty Boy Floyd."  Pretty Boy Floyd was another bank robber and gangster in the 1930s.  The FBI caught and killed him in 1934.  Here's a picture:

In chapter 7 Bud luckily gets into the line at the mission for a free meal when a friendly family pretends he is their son.  We learn a lot of what the Great Depression was like from this scene.  The line is down the road and around two corners, and all the people are waiting for a free meal because they don't have jobs or money to buy food for their families.  Here are some pictures that show scenes described in the chapter.

  

Bud, Not Buddy Day #2

So Bud meets a vampire bat hanging from the roof of the shed.  Did it look something like this?

At the end of chapter 4, Bud says that he is "on the lam" just like Public Enemy Number One.  He also says that "if J. Edgar Hoover saw me now I'd be in some real serious hot water!"  Hoover was the first director of the FBI in the United States.  Public Enemy Number One is what the FBI calls their most wanted criminal, the one they want to catch the most.  Here's a picture of Mr. Hoover.

By the way, remember Bud saying he was shooting out apologies like John Dillinger shoots out bullets?  Well, John Dillinger was Public Enemy Number One in 1934 until Hoover and the FBI caught and killed him.

Bud, Not Buddy Day #1

In chapters 1-2 we learn that the story takes place during the Great Depression.  Here's some information about that time in our country's history.

1. It lasted from 1929 until about 1940.
2. Unemployment in the United States was 25%, which means one out of every four people lost their jobs, and which also means there was very little money to go around.
3. Herbert Hoover was the United States president at the beginning.
4. Franklin Roosevelt was elected president in 1932.

In chapter 2 Bud says he started shooting out apologies like John Dillinger shoots out bullets.  Who was he? 

Dillinger was a gangster and bank robber.  And yes, he shot out bullets.  Lots of them.  In less than one year, 1933-1934. Dillinger and his gang robbed numerous banks, and Dillinger himself killed 10 people, including a sheriff.  So if Bud was shooting out apologies like Dillinger shoots out bullets, you know what Bud was doing.  Dillinger was shot and killed by the FBI on July 22, 1934 in Chicago.

Don't forget to answer your questions on your blog.

UPDATE:  I thought you might like to see just how far Toddy got that pencil up Bud's nose.  Remember?  It went in eraser end first, all the way up to the R in Ticonderoga.  Yowch!

Before We Start Working Online...

Here is a video to watch before we begin posting a lot of information on the Internet.  This short movie is about protecting your reputation online.  What does that mean?  To protect is to keep safe.  Your reputation is what people think about you.  Here is the video.

Protecting your Reputation Online

Yes, embarrassing things happen to all of us.  But what you post to the Internet is within your control.  What will be the effect of your posts tomorrow, next week, next year, or forever?  Always assume two things about information you put on the Internet:

1. The information will be there forever.
2. The information will be visible to everyone.

Sign of the Beaver Discussion Board

The Book Club discussion board for The Sign of the Beaver has been created and is waiting for your questions and answers.  Follow the directions at the top of the page.  Here is a link to that page, and a link will remain at the top of this page over to the right.  Enjoy the book!

Book Club To-Do List for January 13 & 14

Book Club members, I will be gone on Wednesday and Thursday, but there are a couple things that I would like to you to do while I'm gone.  You have the normal Book Club time, and you also have your Daily Five time to get these things done.  Please follow the directions carefully.

MUST DO
1. Go to Renaissance Place and take the Reading Practice Quiz for The Watsons Go To Birmingham - 1963.
2. Go to Renaissance Place and take the Vocabulary Practice Quiz for The Watsons Go To Birmingham - 1963.
3. Print BOTH Tops Reports and put them on my desk.

If you have time - and you should - take the time to read about the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham on September 15, 1963 in the post below.  There are four links with summaries of the bombing.  Some are pretty short.  I am going to ask your opinions and feelings about the bombing and the events afterward, so be prepared on Friday.

Wordle Example

Here is the Wordle created for The Watson's Go To Birmingham - 1963, Chapters 1-6.  What do you think?  Click on it for a larger image.