Part 2
Locked in the pitch-black shed, Bud is sure a vampire bat is hanging above him — but when he finally screws up his courage, it turns out to be a paper hornets’ nest, and he gets stung breaking the window to climb out. Free at last, Bud does not simply run: he settles his score. He sneaks back into the house, rescues his suitcase, and takes a quiet revenge on Todd, dipping the sleeping bully’s hand in warm water and pouring more over the bed so it will look as if Todd wet it himself. Then Bud slips off into the dark. At dawn he heads for the public library, hoping the kind librarian, Miss Hill, will hide him — only to learn she has married and moved away to Chicago. Bud reads a while, rests, and later finds his old friend Bugs, who has a plan: hop a freight train out west, where there is said to be work, and live ‘on the rails’ like thousands of others in these hard times. First, though, they will head for a shantytown by the tracks — a ‘Hooverville’ — to wait for the westbound train. Bud, with nowhere else to go and no one else to count on, decides to throw in with Bugs and take his chances on the road.
| Section | What you will practice |
|---|---|
| Vocabulary | Escape words: revenge, librarian, freight, shantytown, courage… |
| Literary Elements | Comic revenge, a dashed hope, and a decision that starts the journey |
| Cross-Curricular | Segregation and the color line in 1930s America |
| Ch. | What happens |
|---|---|
| Chapter 3 | The Shed and the Revenge — the ‘vampire bat’ is only a hornets’ nest; Bud escapes, rescues his suitcase, and gets even with Todd before slipping into the night. |
| Chapter 4 | Miss Hill Is Gone — Bud goes to the library for help but learns the kind librarian has moved away; he meets up with Bugs, who plans to ride a freight train out west. |
Four words, and two of them are the kind a ten-year-old is not supposed to need. Revenge is harm done in return for a wrong, and Bud’s on Todd is a prank, cleverer than it is cruel. Courage is bravery in the face of fear, and it takes some to go back into that shed and face what he believes is waiting in it. A librarian is a person who works in a library, and Miss Hill is Bud’s favorite adult in the world — worth noticing, because a library is the one public building in 1936 that will let him in and then leave him alone. Freight is goods carried by train, or the train itself, and Bugs wants to hop one west. Two of these words are for surviving a house. The other two are for getting out.
ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.
The events of Chapters 3–4 become clearer when readers separate a character’s motive from the obstacle encountered and the response that follows. Locked in the pitch-black shed, Bud is sure a vampire bat is hanging above him — but when he finally screws up his courage, it turns out to be a paper hornets’ nest, and he gets stung breaking the window to climb out. Free at last, Bud does not simply run: he settles his score. He sneaks back into the house, rescues his suitcase, and takes a quiet revenge on Todd, dipping the sleeping bully’s hand in warm water and pouring more over the bed so it will look as if Todd wet it himself. Following motive through response reveals why “Escape and a Plan” forms a consequential sequence.
- He sneaks back for his suitcase and gets even with Todd.
- He goes to the library and learns Miss Hill is gone.
- Bud faces the ‘bat’ and finds a hornets’ nest.
- He meets Bugs and agrees to ride the rails.
- He breaks the window and climbs out.
The craft of Part 2 works through tone, reversal, and decision, each shaping how readers judge the new conflict. Notice how Curtis handles Bud’s revenge on Todd. It could have been ugly; instead it is a prank — warm water and a ‘wet’ bed — that makes us laugh even as it lets Bud reclaim a little power. This is tone at work: the same events could be told as tragedy, but Curtis chooses comedy, and that choice shapes how we feel about Bud. He is not a victim to be pitied but a clever survivor to be cheered. Watch how often the book turns a frightening moment (a shed, a stranger, a locked door) toward humor. The comic tone is Curtis’s way of keeping Bud — and the reader — from being crushed by how hard this world is. That authorial design makes “Revenge as Comedy” a lesson in deliberate suspense.
As Bud sets out to travel alone across 1936 Michigan, remember what that meant for a Black child. This was the era of Jim Crow — a web of laws and customs, strongest in the South but present across the whole country, that kept Black and white Americans apart and unequal. Segregated schools, separate waiting rooms, whites-only hotels and restaurants, and the daily danger of being a Black stranger in an unfamiliar town were all facts of life. A white boy hopping a train or walking a highway ran real risks; a Black boy like Bud ran far greater ones. Curtis writes Bud’s adventure with warmth and humor, but the danger under it is real: every stranger Bud meets, every town he passes through, must be measured against the color line. Hold that beside the tone of the book. The humor is not a softening. It is how Bud gets through.
Think back over these chapters. A boy in a black shed stares up at a shape he is sure will bite his neck — and finds only paper and hornets, which sting him as he smashes his way out. Free, he does the un-obvious thing: he goes back, for his suitcase and for a little justice, leaving a sleeping bully to wake in a wet bed of his own supposed making. By morning he is at the library door, certain the kind woman there will take him in — and certain, a minute later, that she is gone for good. So when an old friend says the word ‘train,’ Bud, who has nowhere on earth to be, says yes.
- SATCentral Ideas — the main point of the passage as a whole
- TOEFLFactual Information — a fact stated directly in the passage
- SATDetail — a fact the passage states directly
- SATWords in Context — what a word means the way this passage uses it
- TOEFLVocabulary — the meaning of a tested word as this passage uses it
- TOEFLInference — something the passage implies without saying it
- TOEFLProse Summary — choosing the three sentences that capture the main ideas
- TOEFLRhetorical Purpose — why the author included a particular detail
Bud travels alone across Michigan in 1936, and to understand the danger in that, you have to understand Jim Crow. ‘Jim Crow’ is the name for the system of laws and customs that kept Black and white Americans separate and unequal from the end of slavery well into the twentieth century. It was harshest in the Southern states, where laws forced Black people into separate schools, separate railroad cars, separate drinking fountains, and the backs of buses. But segregation was not only Southern. Across the North and Midwest — including Michigan — unwritten rules and open prejudice kept Black families out of many neighborhoods, hotels, restaurants, and jobs.
For a Black traveler, this made the ordinary business of moving through the country risky. A hotel might refuse a room; a diner might refuse a meal; a strange town after dark could be genuinely dangerous. Black motorists even carried a special guidebook, later famous as the ‘Green Book,’ that listed the few places where they would be served and safe. A white child hopping a train or walking a highway in 1936 faced hardship; a Black child like Bud faced that hardship compounded by the constant threat of the color line. Curtis fills Bud’s journey with humor and kindness, but the danger beneath it is real history. It is why every stranger Bud meets must be carefully weighed — and why the genuine kindness he does receive shines so brightly against so hard a background.
This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!
Writing Task — Part 2 “Turning Fear Into a Laugh”
Bud faces a terrifying ‘bat’ that turns out to be a hornets’ nest, and the scary night becomes almost funny. Write about a time something you feared turned out to be less scary than you imagined — or a hard moment you can now laugh about. What happened, and how did your feelings change? 6–10 sentences. End with what the experience taught you about fear.
No right or wrong — close the screen and tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.
Part 2 Complete!
You finished Chapters 3–4 of Bud, Not Buddy.
Here are your auto-graded results:
The best last step is to teach it. In your own words, explain what happened — retell a favorite scene, teach a character’s big choice, or sum up the main idea for a parent, friend, or classmate. When you can teach it clearly, you truly own it.
Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Christopher Paul Curtis. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Christopher Paul Curtis’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.