Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.
Exposition (Initial Situation)
Pencils, Hornets, and Pee, Oh, My!
Bud is at the Home, getting sprung again, and winds up with a foster family that has been around the block with orphans. The Amoses are getting paid to take care of kids, but they are either unaware of what their sneaky son Todd is up to or just don't care. And what is Todd up to? Well, for starters, during Bud's first night at the Amos house, Todd goes and sticks a pencil up the poor kid's nose while he's asleep.
Wait, there's more: Todd then beats the kid up and blames the whole fight on Bud. So, of course Mrs. Amos stops the abuse and calls out Todd for his bad behavior? Yeah, right. She kicks Bud out and locks him in the shed with a hornets' nest. You know where this is headed don't you? The hornets sting Bud, so he busts through the window and sneaks into the Amos house to get his suitcase and run away. But first, Bud pours water in Todd's bed, which makes him pee—and that's Mrs. Amos's worst nightmare.
So now we know Bud's general stitch. Thanks a bunch, exposition!
Rising Action (Conflict, Complication)
I Would Walk 500 Miles, and I Would Walk 500 More…
While Bud's on the lam, he first tries to find the super nice librarian, Miss Hill, to help him, but she's just got married and moved to Chicago. Well, now where is Bud supposed to go? He runs into his pal Bugs and follows him to Hooverville where the two hope to hop a train to California, where people say there are jobs. But… yeah, Bud misses that train. So he decides to find the man he thinks must be his father, this guy that Bud has seen in pictures on some music flyers he took from his mother's house.
The catch: this man lives really far away. Bud decides to walk there. (Seriously. Times were hard.) While on his journey, though, an old man named Mr. Lefty Lewis picks up Bud, saying how dangerous it is for black folks to be out there at night, and takes him to his daughter's house in Flint to rest and eat. Lefty Lewis says he knows Herman Calloway, the guy on those jazz flyers (gasp). Lefty makes it seem like Calloway is kind of old.
Uh- oh… that sounds complicated. Is this father-flyer business all in Bud's head? And will Bud get caught lying and be sent back to the Home, or worse? That action is tense—and rising!
Climax (Crisis, Turning Point)
Grumpy Old Man
Biting our nails here, we wonder what will happen. Are these people nice or not? Bud goes out to eat with Calloway's band and is pretty bummed out that Calloway is not only super old but super grumpy, too. There really is no way he could be Bud's father, could he? At the best restaurant in town, the Sweet Pea, Bud gets to thinking about all the wonderful smells and sounds and notices how nice and loving the rest of the band is. Bud breaks down crying for the first time in years and feels like he has found a real home with people who will love him. That is, all of them except Mr. C.
Falling Action
He Will Rock You
Ahhh, after such a satisfying climax, you might wonder how the book could get any better. Well, it turns out that Bud has been carrying around the same kinds of rocks with cities and dates on them that Calloway has collected and stashed in his car. Hmmm, weird coincidence or a mysterious turn of fate? Actually, the rocks Bud has are Calloway's because Bud's mother was Mr. C's long-lost daughter. So Bud really has found his family, just one he wasn't expecting. Mr. C wasn't expecting it, either, and is all broken up over the news that his beloved daughter is dead so young and probably ran away because she was pregnant with Bud.
Resolution (Denouement)
Home, Sweet Home
Bud really is a member of the band now that he has a cool name (Mr. Sleepy LaBone) and his own sax. He has his own room and his own bed and no one can make him leave it. Bud is home, happy, well rested, and well fed. Steady Eddie has promised to give him his first lesson later that day. Life is good. The end.