Times are tough for everyone in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression and it’s no different for ten-year-old Bud. His mother is dead, and he has escaped from a bad foster home in order to search for his father. He takes only a few things with him: a suitcase filled with cherished possessions and his list called Bud Caldwell’s Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself. Rules and Things Number Three states: “If you got to tell a lie, make sure it’s simple and easy to remember.” Thank goodness for humor. Curtis has an uncanny ability to take difficult situations, mix them with humor, and cause his readers to laugh out loud.