The major theme of Bud, Not Buddy, centers on the child's search for family. Motherless Bud has knocked around the Flint orphanage and a succession of foster homes long enough to know what he wants and what he does not. He would rather be on the lam.

Besides, Bud remembers his mother; how she read to him at night, how they visited the library together, the important messages she gave him about his name and doors that open and close. They were a family and he treasures that "rememory."

So, once he "busts out" of wrongful imprisonment in the Amos's garage, his latest foster home, Bud is on his own and after a few false starts, he heads on foot for Grand Rapids, looking for the man he is certain must be his father.

Curtis adeptly uses the archetype of the hero's journey to play out...