Moses, Sheila P. The Legend of Buddy Bush: A Novel.

MOSES, Sheila P. The legend of Buddy Bush, a novel. Simon & Schuster, Pulse. 211p. illus, c2004. 1-4169-0716-5. $5.99. JS

To quote the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, January 2004: Moses has written poetry and plays; she is co-author of Dick Gregory's memoir Callus on my Soul. In this novel for YAs she returns to her childhood home for the setting: Rehobeth Road in Rich Square, North Carolina, where she grew up in a large, loving family. At the end of this book, she includes photographs of her own grandparents and their home on Rehobeth Road. These grandparents and their home are central to this story set in 1947. The main character is Pattie Mae, on the edge of adolescence, the last child remaining at home since her older siblings have gone north for jobs. Her grandfather is the only father she has known, and his illness and death are major elements in the story. It is Buddy Bush, Pattie Mae's uncle, who is the focus, however. He has returned to the South from Harlem to live with them, and he finds it difficult to return to the prejudice and Jim Crow laws the white community enforces.

Details are related, such as how they have to enter the back of the ice cream store for their cones, how they are expected to get off a sidewalk to allow a white person to pass by. Through Buddy Bush's eyes, Pattie Mae sees these insults anew. When they are together in town, Buddy Bush is arrested for assault on a white woman, which has to do with some nonsense about how he didn't get off the sidewalk fast enough for her to pass. He is arrested and the family fears that he will be lynched. In fact, the KKK does come for him at the jail in the night, but he manages to escape. Pattie Mae's story is melded with the real story of Buddy Bush and his actual escape from the Klan, the facts of which are described in photographs and in the Author's Note.

Again, we have a story about adult subjects--racial bigotry and injustice--as seen from the eyes of a child, a format that defies easy categories, and actually can be read by all ages 12 and up. This is an excellent middle school selection, and Moses captures the details of life in Pattie Mae's family and community with an authenticity that only someone close to her own past and traditions could manage. (A National Book Award Finalist.) Claire Rosser, KLIATT