Buddy - Nigel Hinton

The novel Buddy is suitable for readers aged 10-16 and has been frequently used in secondary schools as a class reader. However, adults may find it entertaining and may like to read it also. It is a good novel with the availability of two sequels as well as a drama and a film based on the sequel Buddy's song (with Roger Daltrey as Buddy's dad and Chesney Hawke as Buddy himself with the infamous song "One and Only")

Nigel ...
...is easy to see why. Buddy is a realistic look at social issues today without becoming too heavy.

Buddy Clark is the main character and is growing up in a house with very little money with his Buddy Holly loving Teddy Boy father and his increasingly dissatisfied mother. After Buddy steals some money for a school trip and his mother leaves home, the story revolves around Buddy's trying to make sense of the world around him.

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The novel Buddy is suitable for readers aged 10-16 and has been frequently used in secondary schools as a class reader. However, adults may find it entertaining and may like to read it also. It is a good novel with the availability of two sequels as well as a drama and a film based on the sequel Buddy's song (with Roger Daltrey as Buddy's dad and Chesney Hawke as Buddy himself with the infamous song "One and Only")

Nigel Hinton is a confirmed novelist of children's books and his works have won prizes for literature and it is easy to see why. Buddy is a realistic look at social issues today without becoming too heavy.

Buddy Clark is the main character and is growing up in a house with very little money with his Buddy Holly loving Teddy Boy father and his increasingly dissatisfied mother. After Buddy steals some money for a school trip and his mother leaves home, the story revolves around Buddy's trying to make sense of the world around him.

Despite being written in 1982, Buddy covers themes that are still relevant for both teenagers and adults today such as racism, bullying, stealing and being the odd one out. There is also the main plot of Buddy's dad mysteriously coming into money and abandoned house on Croxley Street.

Buddy is a likable character and Nigel Hinton gets under the skin of a teenager boy very well (possibly from his days as an English teacher). The language is easily accessible for most readers although for struggling readers they may need some help to understand what is going on. However, it uses uses plenty of description that will be familiar to a lot of readers.

Buddy is one of those sacred books that appeals to boys just as much as girls, hence it's introduction into the classroom.

It deals with relevant topics for boys alike and it's only downfalls are that due to it's use in class, many readers will not pick it up and that in comparison to the shiny-covered action-packed books of today such as Harry Potter and Alex Rider, young readers will not be interested. The climax to the novel is not explosions or happy endings but it beneifts from being entirely realistic.

However it is definately worth a read for both young and old. 

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