Buddy

Buddy Trilogy #1

by Nigel Hinton

Buddy is a moving and totally convincing account of a boy's faltering relationship with his father, with an atmospheric 1980s setting. It is one of The Originals from Penguin - iconic, outspoken, first.

Buddy has a hopeless father who is an ageing rocker, interested only in Elvis and bikes, and living on the fringes of the under-world. The two manage to strike up some kind of relationship when Buddy's mum walks out - until Buddy realises that his dad is involved in something more serious than he suspected.

The Originals are the pioneers of fiction for young adults. From political awakening, war and unrequited love to addiction, teenage pregnancy and nuclear holocaust, The Originals confront big issues and articulate difficult truths. The collection The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton, I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith, Postcards from No Man's Land - Aidan Chambers, After the First Death - Robert Cormier, Dear Nobody - Berlie Doherty, The Endless Steppe - Esther Hautzig, Buddy - Nigel Hinton, Across the Barricades - Joan Lingard, The Twelfth Day of July - Joan Lingard, No Turning Back - Beverley Naidoo, Z for Zachariah - Richard C. O'Brien, The Wave - Morton Rhue, The Red Pony - John Steinbeck, The Pearl - John Steinbeck, Stone Cold - Robert Swindells.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Contemporary, Childrens, Read For School, School, Middle Grade

221 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Nigel Hinton was born and educated in London. After two years in advertising, he worked as an English teacher for nine years. His first novel, Collision Course (winner of the Dutch Silver Pen Award) was written as a result of a challenge from one of his pupils. He began teaching part-time and also worked as a professional actor before concentrating on his writing.

Nigel is the ever-popular author the Beaver Towers series of stories for primary school readers (which has been adapted for TV), and, for secondary school readers, he wrote the Buddy trilogy. His novel The Finders won him the Federation of Children’s Book Groups Award.

Reviews

[Roz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The kids enjoyed this. How do I know? There was dead silence while I was reading it.

'Buddy' is a pleasantly complex story. Initially, it appears as though this is going to be a book focusing on a teenager, Buddy, having to cope with discrimination from his peers at school because, unlike them, he does not come from a wealthy family. But it is a mile away from that idea. It has to do with moral dilemmas, compassion, owning up and a whole lot more.

The characters are wonderfully flawed. Our initial view of Buddy is of him stealing money from his mother's purse. We realise shortly that his parents are not happily married. His mother leaves. His father.... well, that would be telling. What was impressive though, is that even though these characters were not doing things we would approve of, Hinton gets us to see both sides - we can understand their reasoning as to why they are doing what they do.

The book was set in England in the 80s, where work was scarce, there were race riots etc. It is not the perfect picture we have when we sit here, at the bottom of Africa, and think of the green grasses of England.

This is a good book to read with a class that is not very strong. The language is simple while the themes are mature. It allows an opportunity to learn how to analyse a text without being bogged down with complicated language and vocabulary.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first came across this in 1992, but I think it still is a current book. Well written social realism for 10-12 year olds, Buddy has to cope when his mum moves leaving him and his dad to cope on their own. The bbc did a great video with Roger Daltry in the role of the dad.

[Eli · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn’t the best but it’s still good. Buddy is a very interesting character and has a deep background and has a mediocre family who don’t come from a wealthy family. I’d recommend it to people who like crime and fiction and are around the age of 10. Overall it’s a book that I could read from time to time.

[rojin · Rating 1 out of 5]

The worst thing his dad did was name him buddy🙁

[Emma Fay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buddy by Nigel Hinton is a great fiction book for kids aged 9-10 as it’s an easy read and can help teach young children about the difficulties some people may go through. In my opinion it was a good book all and all but I wouldn’t read it again as it wasn’t really exciting. However I really enjoyed getting to know each characters story especially Charmian and Julius’s hard time at school.

[Gearóid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good story.

[Angelina Gasparre · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the first page this book had me wanting more. I loved the way the story is conveyed and constructed and how the author makes you feel for every decision and choice made from both sides. This book does a great job at portraying hard situations and conscious choices. With every problem that arose it was shown how both sides to the situation had reasoning. The way the dad would choice doing illegal jobs but in order to provide for his son, how the mom left her family in order to better herself and not have as much anger and resentment, how Buddy would would love and hate both his parents and want to change them and keep them the way they were at the same time. Additionally I loved how this book showed ocd and anxiety in a young child who’s aging and growing with every day. This book was well written and is worth the read.

[Amy Doyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buddy holly by Nigel Hinton
Genre: fiction
This book as about a teenage boy named buddy who’s family life is very complicated. At the start of the book buddy lives with his mum and dad this changes as the book goes on. He is good friends with a pair of twins in the express class in school. He relates to the twins because buddy gets made fun of for not having much money and the twins get made fun of because of there race.my favourite character is julius as he is an adventurous character and doesn’t shy away from a challenge. Some of the main characters include Charmaine ,julius , buddy, buddy’s dad terry and buddy’s mum. The protagonist in this story is buddy. In my opinion this is not the best book because it is quite boring and not much happens . I would recommend it for ages 10 -13 caz it has some slang that could be complicated for younger kids to understand

[Chloe McColgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Buddy by Nigel Hinton
Genre: Fiction

Buddy is a 13 year old that lives in 80s England with his farther who is unemployed and his mother had just walk out on them. He has to friends Julius and Charmaine, in school his teacher and classmates make fun of him due to his financial problems at home.

I found this book a bit boring and very slow paced. I didn’t find Buddy and interesting main character and the reveal towards the end was predictable and not practically exciting. There were some more interesting parts to the book but the author did nothing to explore them.

I would recommend this book to 8-11 years olds.

[Eltona · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5⭐️

𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦.💛

-
This book is set in England in 80s.
The story follows a teenage boy called Buddy Clark, who is filled with fears and worries,when his mom left home he had a lot of questions for example
Why has his mom left home?
What’s it like to die?
What’s the mysterious “job” his dad has found”?

I finished this book in just one sitting for me it was okay i like it, and it’s a quick read as well.
This is a story with sad, funny and bits that really make you think what’s going on.
The part when his mom left it was so sad to be honest .
Also there are some examples in the book that has to do with bullying .
This book is a good read and I definitely recommend it.

[Alex Healy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Buddy
By Nigel Hinton
Fiction
In my opinion this book was not a normal book and it broke away from norms but not in a good way it had little to no exciting parts and the “villain” was barely evil.
The only reason the book even got two stars is because of Ralph who is mentally insane.

The main characters are buddy his family and his friends.

The book is set in an English town in the 80s.

I would recommend this to easily scared 6 to 10 year olds for anyone else this would just be kind of boring.

[BONE · Rating 3 out of 5]

5.5 kinda sucked ngl

[Bianca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this as a teenager.

[Helena Wares · Rating 1 out of 5]

terrible, very boring

[Nicholas Politis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can´t actually remember when I finished this becuase I forgot to update it when I did. Good-ish book anyway.

[Oscar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still had some questions about the relationship of the characters after reading.

[Teigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book that I have read is buddy by Nigel Hinton. The story is about a teenage boy called Buddy Clark, who is very puzzled.
This is a story with sad, funny and bits that really make you think about what is going on. A funny moment for me is when buddy and his dad terry are in the country on terry’s moped and they are messing around. A sad moment in the book for me is when buddy’s mum leaves. What made it so sad was because I know how it feels to not have your mum there all the time especially when you need her the most. Also there are bits that really made me think, like when Terry was breaking into places, I was thinking why he is actually doing this instead of getting a proper job.
The heart of the story is Buddy and Terrys relationship. It is a different relationship from a normal father/son relationship. Terry loves Buddy very much and this is clear. We know this because Terry tries to look after Buddy properly and tries to bring in an income, but he is going about this the wrong way because one wrong move and he could be in the jail then Buddy will get put in to a care home. Also Terry tries his best and upmost to be there for his son Buddy. You can clearly see that terry and Buddy really struggle when Buddy’s mum leaves the house.
Another interesting character in the book is Ralph James Campbell, he is also known as “the beast”. Ralph is different; you can tell that something traumatic has happened to him at some point in his life. Ralph tells us something very sad in the book. The beast tells Buddy that his dad slit his mother’s throat one day before buddy came in from school, when Ralph came in from school his mum was lying in a pool of her own blood. He went to look for his dad to tell him what had happened to his mum, but he ran upstairs to find his dad had hung himself.
One of the messages in the book is to do with bullying. There are some examples of bullying in the story. One example of bullying is what happens to Buddy at school. Buddy’s teacher Me. Normington always has some sort of nasty thing to say to Buddy.
This story is a good read for the age group (12-16), I think this is a good age group for this book because between these ages you are old enough to understand everything, well most things. The book is a very good read, I could relate to how Buddy felt most of the times, but only because I’ve been in some of his situations.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm quite lucky being born in the late seventies. During that decade, a series of books which focused on teenagers started to appear on the market. Books which described the problems that adolescents face - confusion, depression, challenges at school and puberty, just to name a few. Now this genre is called YA fiction. As I hit eleven the school library had a plethora of books by Betsy Byars, Judy Blume, Robert Cormier, Paul Zindell and more. I am mentioning this because I never really read British YA though so when I saw Buddy, which was published in 1982, I thought I'd give it a go. However I knew as a 38 year old the story may not mean much to me.

I was right.

Buddy has all the elements of a great YA story. The hero is confused due to his parents separating. He has problems at school due to his social class. He is conscious of his father's working class habits and in general has problems in connecting with him, and is developing a love for music. In this aspect the book works. Also Hinton does not pander to his audience so the ending is not wishy washy, just like the last book I read, Half Blood Blues. Hinton also uses records as a metaphor for life and Hinton does it in a poignant way. There are even hints of same sex relationships, a bi racial friendships; something I think was quite daring during Thatcher's Britain at the time (correct me if I am wrong)

The book fails spectacularly due to it's sub plot, which renders the book banal. The teens of the story discover a haunted house, which is being used as a storage centre for a big time jewelry thief. Here Buddy descends into Enid Blyton Territory and is the only time the novel becomes totally predictable, and to a certain extent, I found boring.

If I was a 13 year old, would I like this book? most probably, yes so really Buddy is for that age demographic. As an adult reading this, Buddy has potential but fails in other ways.

[Sam Carley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today I’m reviewing Buddy by Nigel Hinton. This books genre is a fiction drama book. In my opinion this book is a 4 out of 5 star book. I gave this book 4 stars because although after each chapter finishes you want to continue, I think this book had a poor ending with all that’s happened throughout the book.

The main character Buddy is a 13 year old boy from England who has grown up in a poor family with his crime loving father and his mother who wants to work in finance. He has 2 friends Charmian and Julius who come from a Jamaican family. He has a mean teacher Mr. Normington who constantly gives him a hard time.

I would recommend this book to 11 to 14 year olds because you’d have to be older to understand some of the words and slang throughout the book. Thanks for reading my review.

[Roksana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buddy,written by Nigel Hinton.The genre for this book is fiction which is one of my favourite genres, but I wouldn’t say this book would be one of my favourites.I’d recommend this book to people 12 or older.I did enjoy reading it the majority of the time but the ending really did disappoint me. I read it thinking “Is that just it, nothing else?”

It’s set in England. Buddy, our protagonist, lives with his mom and dad in a not so welcoming home.
Buddy’s dad seems to always end up in jail, causing fights between both parents. He goes to school and to many people’s surprise he actually goes to a higher up class,E3. Buddy’s teacher isn’t that great either. Not only his teacher ,Mrs. Normington, very strict, he’s always looking for a way to bother him or make him upset.

[Amy Turner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Buddy Nigel hinton
This books genre is a fiction drama. Buddy steals £5 out of his mums purse and the next morning she's gone. He discovers different places with his two friends Charmian and Julius. His dad is a irresponsible dad and doesn't see buddy very often and comes home late every night due to his job. The main characters are Buddy, his dad, a beast, his mum and friends. I would recommend this book for an older audience because younger children I feel wouldn't enjoy this very much. Teenagers would enjoy this as its about a teenage boy who has home problems and people are not kind to him due to his background.

I didn't like this book to much because it had a little amount of exciting parts and the main villain wasn't even that bad of a person. It could use a bit more energy.

[Brentt Fernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buddy is made by author Nigel Hinton. The theme for this book is probably fiction drama as it contains some emotional scenes. The audience for this book can be for children and adults as it contains multiple crimes. For example murder and robbery But it still can be suitable for kids. The book has dramatic scenes but it feels like there’s less to no tension in it. The ending chapters were probably my favourite since it has the most tension. But the most tension that should happen is in the climax which felt boring. The end of the book also felt mid. It’s solid for some chapters but it can get some improvement. Boy in the Striped Pajamas is still one of my favourite books since it’s so good.

Mid book

[Thady Giltrap · Rating 2 out of 5]

Title : Buddy
Author: Nigel Hinton
Genre: Fiction

In my opinion the book was okay , Quite boring at different stages of the book but overall was okay. I think the novel is okay because there was a lot that happens example Buddy steals £5 ,Buddy’s mother leaves . Buddy has two friends called Charmian and Julias.I gave this book a 2/5 because it was not interesting as it was very easy to predict what would happen next and was just an overall
Alright book.
In my opinion this is not a very good book as it is not interesting at all . I recommend this book to 10-12 years old as they might find it more interesting.

[Shane Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to own these books. I got this one. Wanting the other 2 but they are out of print. First time I read this I was about 14. It taken me about 6 months to a year to read. I wasn't really in to reading as I was slow.

I pick this book up again when I was 20. I read it in 20 hours about 5 days. I never found another book the clich me like these did. I go so involved with the character buddy and his family and love life. It's a shame that I can not get hold of the last two books to keep. I am from the uk. If anyone willing to sell of know where I can get hold of these. Please let me know.

[Dimitris · Rating 4 out of 5]

We were assigned this in middle school, ages ago. Needless to say I, a Greek teenager, understood nothing back then of a novel full of British expressions and simulated oral speech.
30 years later here I am, digging it out, re-reading it and loving it! What 80s nostalgia, the retro Brit culture, the clothes, the phonebooths, the motorcycles, the 60s songs his dad (as mine too) listened too.
Ah, what a refreshing change from today's YA books with kids stuck to their phones and social media and having angst and wild sex by age 13.
Please take me back to 1982 and leave me there, thank you.

[Erin Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buddy by Nigel Hinton a fiction novel,
In my opinion i liked the story of this book but I did think that the book it wasnt very interesting towards the end as there was nothing happening exept Buddy going home,even with that it was not very interesting.The middle of this book was very good because there was bits of high tention that was built up.Buddy had some interesting characters,I found the beast the most intreging because we didnt know a lot about him and there was stories about him that didnt quite match him when the kids met him.Buddys two friends the rybero twins Charmain and Julius were very good friends and cared a lot about Buddy and his family problems.charmian and Buddy had a particularly close reletionship.I would recommend this book to kids older than 8 but younger than 13 because some of the laungage could be confusing to a younger child but I dont think a teenager would find this book all that interesting.

[Eimantas · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was a normal length. If you committed to reading it every day you would finish it in maybe less than half a month. This book was for younger people but not too young since there is a few inappropriate terms in it. The book was quite boring and all the events were jumping from one to another never really smoothly transitioned. I also don’t like fiction books since they are boring. Me personally I wouldn’t recommend this book. This could’ve been a better book if the events were more connected with each other. I do like how this book was set in the past.

[Miya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buddy
By: Nigel Hinton
Genre: Fiction

I think “Buddy” was a very well written book. It was interesting and had many small events that led up to the big ones. Hinton was able to catch different people’s personalities very well and I enjoyed the minor characters as well as the main ones. The book’s main characters are Buddy (13) his parents and his two friends (13), it’s set in England in the 80’s and is written in Buddy’s perspective.
I would recommend this book for 10 to 13 year olds as it isn’t too grown up and would suit them well.

[Iona MacLeod · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to read this book in my second year of secondary school for my English class. I didn't really enjoy this book, I mean it's not something I would typically pick up and read but I suppose the things you read for school, especially in English classes, you sort of have to enjoy them. Because you are being forced to read it, and you HAVE to understand it, every single sentence, because at the end of the term, you have to write an essay on it and if you don't know it, then you're screwed.

[itrat · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 | i feel so maternal towards buddy clark. he’s also a bit like a reflection of myself, i related a lot to how he thought and his relationships with the people around him.

i read it for the first time many years ago for a school assignment and i really think my literature classes were always trying to depress me cause all we ever read were sad books, but i think it was for the better in terms of developing as a child.