Curtis, Christopher Paul. (1999). Bud, Not Buddy. New York: Scholastic Inc.

This book is about a young boy who enters a foster home with the Amoses. Unfortunately, Bud encounters the Amoses's son, Tod, who teases him calling him "Buddy." When Bud fights Tod, he is punished. Bud escapes his punishment, gets revenge on Tod, and runs away from the Amoses home. He meets his friend, Bugs, and they leave together to go West. However, Bud is unable to hop on the train with Bugs, so he begins walking on his own journey. Throughout his journey to Grand Rapids to meet his father, Herman E. Calloway, Lefty Lewis assists him. Bud ends up discovering that Herman is actually his grandfather, and he is not very kind towards Bud. However, in the end, Bud receives a horn from his grandfather's band, which gives him great hope. He also finds out that his bed is actually the bed of his Mother who died.
This book is historical fiction. Therefore it would be great to implement in a classroom in order to teach the history within it. This book takes place during the Great Depression. It would be beneficial to do a unit using this novel in order to teach Social Studies on the Great Depression. Orphanages and foster care were very common in the 1930's, so conversation about that could be implemented during the unit as well. It might also be beneficial to discuss black relations during the Great Depression through this novel.
The following is a book trailer for Bud, Not Buddy:

The following is the link to a whole page on Pinterest on teaching this novel: https://www.pinterest.com/sec_solutions/teaching-bud-not-buddy/