Bud (like a plant, not short for "Buddy", as he tells everyone) is a motherless boy on the run.

He's determined to find his father but doesn't know where to start.

The only clue he has is a bunch of flyers about Herman E Calloway and his jazz band, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression.

Bud is on a journey. He has hit the road with one idea in mind - he wants to discover his father.

He's not got a lot to go on - just a flyer for a jazz band and his very own Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself.

Despite encounters with a car-driving vampire, a monster-infested woodshed and even a real live girl, Bud presses on towards a surprising discovery...Readers will be instantly engaged by Bud's heartwarming, funny and fast-moving story in this award-winning novel set in 1930s America.