SLIS 5420 - Module 4 - Going Bovine

Module 4 - Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Bibliography
Bray, Libba. Going Bovine. Delacorte Press, 2009 ISBN: 978-0-385-73397-7 

Summary
This book is an epic trip across America that is both funny, touching and surreal. Cameron has been diagnosed with Mad Cow Disease and while he is dying, he may be saving the world or having an amazing hallucination. A large cast of interesting characters flesh out this excellent, fun story. Winner of the 2010 Printz Award.

What I thought
Normally, I don't like stories that may or may not be in the narrator's head. However, this story is such an amazing trip, I didn't mind. In some ways, the story reminds me of a few other novels, such as Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and my favorite Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins. The surreal nature of the story is both fun and disturbing. I am of the opinion that the entire trip, the saving the world and everything takes place in Cameron's dying mind. However, that doesn't take away from the real-life feelings the book invokes. It is a book about celebrating life, being yourself and following dreams. The characters of Balder the Garden Gnome and Gonzo the little person are wonderful. They feel like real people that I wish I could meet.

Outside Reviews

"When sixteen-year-old Cameron was five, he jumped ship on the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disney World and nearly drowned. “The thing is, before they pulled me out, everything had seemed made of magic . . . But the minute I came to on the hard, glittery, spray-painted, fake snow. . . I realized it was all a big fake. The realest thing I’d ever experienced was that moment under the water when I almost died.” This sets the theme for the even wilder ride that follows, when Cameron’s erratic behavior leads to a diagnosis of  Creutzfeldt-Jakob (a.k.a. mad cow) disease. With the student body that used to ignore him throwing a save-Cameron pep rally and decorating the gym with paper cows, Cameron and his friend Gonzo, a hypochondriac dwarf, flee the hospital on a mission (as detailed by a punk-rock angel named Dulcie) to save the world from “dark energy”—or do they? Bray gleefully tosses a hallucinogenic mix of elements into the adventure—snow globes, fire demons, a talking yard gnome, a demon-fighting New Orleans jazz musician, and more—but their origins can all be found in Cameron’s mundane prediagnosis life. So is his trip “just a ride,” as his Mom once told him about “It’s a Small World”? Readers will have a great time trying to sort everything out and answer the question at the heart of it all: even if Cameron’s experiences are all a dream,  are they any less real?"

C. M., H. (2009). Going Bovine. Horn Book Magazine, 85(5), 553. Retrieved from MasterFILE Premier database.

"In Libba Bray's unconventional novel, winner of the 2010 Michael L. Printz Award, Cameron, the 16-year-old down-and-out protagonist, meanders through varied phantasmagoric experiences after being diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jacob ("mad cow") disease. Cam has given up trying to succeed at home, in school, or as one of the cool kids. Instead, he sinks further into disassociation from his world until he is visited by Dulcie (reminiscent of Quixote's Dulcinea), a possibly hallucinatory punk/angel, who convinces Cam there could be a cure, if he is willing to assume great risks in searching for it. And so begins Cam's bizarre quest to thwart evil, unravel the mystery of the disappearing Dr. X--who may hold the key to a cure, but might also be plotting to destroy the world--and beat his terminal diagnosis. Cam is accompanied on this dark roadtrip of an increasingly spongy mind by Dulcie, a hypochondriacal dwarf named Gonzo, and a resilient yard gnome who could possibly be the ancient Viking god, Balder. [Bray] ably narrates this psychedelic ride, with a deft touch of teenage angst and ennui. There is so much going on that listeners could easily lose the twisting thread in an instant of inattention. Filled with slang, four letter words, humor, pathos, satire, absurdities, sex, drugs, rock 'n roll, and the fight between good and evil, this is not a journey for the faint of heart."

Spencer, R. (2010). Going Bovine. School Library Journal, 56(4), 57. Retrieved from MasterFILE Premier database.

Using this book in the library
This book is very unusual and is most likely for older teens. It would be an excellent project to work through some of the mythology and physical science that is mentioned in the book. The science takes on mythic proportions in the terms of alternate universes and the Norse mythology may not be familiar to all readers. Mad Cow Disease is interesting as well, since it is not caused by a virus or any other organism. Instead, bad proteins, called prions, are to blame. These topics may be fun to explore in a book club that has members who enjoy learning new things.

For fun
A few subplots in this story involved garden gnomes. Cameron's father shows his son pictures of "liberated" gnomes taken on trips and photographed in front of landmarks. His father thinks this is clever and funny. One of the characters, Balder, is an enchanted yard gnome. There is a site called "Free the Gnomes." Libby is making a commentary on this practice. In France, 79 yard gnomes were discovered alongside a river bank. People are stealing property and using it to create dubious art.

SLIS 5420 - Module 3 - Bud, Not Buddy

Module 3 - Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

Bibliography
Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud, Not Buddy. Delacorte Press, 1999. ISBN: 0-385-32306-9

Summary
This excellent book is a two-time award winner. It received the 2000 Newbery Medal and the 2000 Coretta Scott King Award. This story is about a young boy who is all alone in the world. His mother has died, and he has been living in the Home (an orphanage) since he was 6 years old. Bud thinks he knows who his father is and tries to find him in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Along the way, he meets different people, has adventures and lets his rules for living guide him. Everywhere he goes, he takes his suitcase which contains not only secrets of the past, but also hold clues for his future. Set in the Depression era, the story is upbeat rather than sad. Bud's cheerful attitude and his determination keep him going through all of his adventures.

What I think
I enjoyed this book immensely! I don't normally enjoy books with a historical setting, but the adventures that Bud goes through are paramount to the historical nature of the story. I loved Bud's sense of humor with his hilarious "Bud Caldwell's Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself" that are found appropriately throughout the text. Just as funny are his inadvertent episodes with "vampires" and "ghosts" through the story. Another funny episode involves a librarian trying to give Bud something "special" and Bud says, "I didn't get too excited 'cause I know the kind of things librarians think are special" (p. 89). These scenes make the heartbreaking nature of what Bud has to go through as an African American orphan boy living through the Depression a lighter story than might have otherwise been told.

Overall, I think the use of humor in this story is very important. It's a story that a librarian can easily sell to kids to read based on the fact that its funny and it's a story of a runaway boy's exciting adventures. Kids won't even realize they are learning something. The pictures in the after word really might spark their imaginations, too, because some of the characters were based on the author's family. I would never try to "sell" this book as "Historical Fiction." It's more than a story about a time in history. It's very much a story about a boy finding himself, his family and the adventures he encounters.

Outside Reviews

"Curtis is so perfect for classroom use that I'm going to devote the whole column to it this month. Add this book to your list of must-reads and your list for multiple copies and read-alouds if you work with kids from fourth grade up. As with the author's The Watsons Go to Birmingham (Bantam, 1997, ISBN 0 440-41412-1), we go from laughter to tears in the blink of an eye.

 

Quite a character. Once you meet Bud, you'll never forget him. His self-constructed set of rules for how to "Have a Funner Life and Make a Better Liar Out of Yourself" may remind some readers of Mouse's emergency rules in Betsy Byars' The Eighteenth Emergency (Viking, 1996, ISBN 0140-31451-2). Bud belongs with Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee (Little Brown, 1990, ISBN 0-316-80906-3) and other authors' characters who enlighten the human experience and make us wish we could step into the action to help them find good homes."

Hurst, C. (2000). Meet Bud, Not Buddy. Teaching Pre K-8, 30(7), 72. Retrieved from MasterFILE Premier database.

"In a story that's as far-fetched as it is irresistible, and as classic as it is immediate, a deserving orphan boy finds a home, It's the Depression, and.Bud (not Buddy) is ten and has been on his own since his mother died when he was six. In and out of the Flint, Michigan, children's home and foster homes ever since, Bud decides to take off and find his father after a particularly terrible, though riotously recounted, evening with his latest foster family. Helped only by a few clues his mother left him, and his own mental list of "Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself," Bud makes his way to a food pantry, then to the library to do some research (only to find that his beloved librarian, one Charlemae Rollins, has moved to Chicago), and finally to the local Hoover ville where be just misses hopping a freight to Chicago. Undaunted, he decides to walk to Grand Rapids, where he hopes his father, the bandleader Herman E. Calloway, will be. Lefty Lewis, the kindly union man who gives Bud a lift, is not the first benevolent presence to help the boy on his way, nor will he be the last. There's a bit of the Little Rascals in Bud, and a bit more of Shirley Temple as his kind heart and ingenuous ways bring tears to the eyes of the crustiest of old men — not his father, but close enough. But Bud's fresh voice keeps the sentimentality to a reasonable simmer, and the story zips along in step with Bud's own panache."

Sutton, R. (1999). Bud, Not Buddy. Horn Book Magazine, 75(6), 737. Retrieved from MasterFILE Premier database.

Using this book in the library
In the after word, Curtis tells the readers about the parts of the story that were based on real-life events. Characters like Lefty Lewis and Herman E. Calloway were based on his grandfathers. Using this book as a starting point, children in a book club or other such group could explore the past. They could be encouraged to find out what their own families have accomplished or what parts of history they remember. They could also search for other events that are mentioned in the book, such as the union organizations and learn more about these aspects of history.


More information!
In one of the earlier scenes in the book, Bud is waiting in line outside the mission with his "pretend family." As they round the corner, everyone sees a sign and starts laughing. The billboard sign shows a rich white family driving in a car with the words: "THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE AMERICA TODAY!" (p. 49-50). This scene was inspired by an actual photograph by Margaret Bourke-White. Here is a link to the picture and some more information about the scene. http://courses.wcupa.edu/johnson/cpc-mbw.htm