Young Adult Literature/Quest/Historical Fiction
Since Bud is ten years old, and the story only takes up a few weeks of Bud's life, we can guess that this book is for young people. We can also tell that this is a book for young people because the language is fairly simple and geared toward younger readers.
Bud is on a great quest, although he doesn't know what it is he is searching for until halfway through the story. He is in search of a home, a family, and, in particular, the man he thinks must be his father. The obstacles he has to overcome mostly have to do with not having food or money or a place to stay, so we are glad that so many people come to the rescue. In the end, Bud finds what he was looking for.
This book is also historical fiction because it takes place during a very important time period in American history and includes all sorts of cool details about the Depression and what life was like for people at that time. We get a really good idea about what it would be like to live in the 1930s in Michigan because Bud goes to so many places and meets so many different characters along the way.