Buddy

In this essay, I’m going to discuss ‘Buddy’, a lively and an exciting novel written by Nigel Hinton, and focus on how the main characters develop, changing throughout the novel. Buddy is a teenager; he’s fourteen years of age. At the beginning of the interesting, spectacular book, Buddy’s Mum and Dad split up, which left Buddy, living with his irresponsible Father. Buddy had been complaining, and at the same time, he felt anger, deep inside his heart. He takes all of this in, thinking that he caused his Mum to be in that upsetting situation. After all of this, he stopped shop-lifting and stealing things, which did not belong to him. Only his Dad hadn’t stopped…

Buddy’s character changes throughout this book. The novel opens with Buddy, taking money from his Mother’s purse. “He tip-toed into the front room and slipped the purse out of her handbag. He clicked it open and took out a �5 note.” This shows that he was untrustworthy to his own Mum, and also, he was a shop-lifter. Later in the novel, Buddy changes his character, “He stopped in front of the pen counter and picked up ball point that wrote in three different colours.” “He looked around -nobody here. He checked the ceiling -were there any T.V cameras? It would be easy to slip the pen into his pocket. He put the pen back in the display and walked on.” Buddy had stopped shop-lifting, and was able to be trusted.

Terry’s character changes throughout the novel. At the beginning of the novel, Terry cared more about his motorbike (Harley Davidson) than his family. “It didn’t look like his house without the Harley Davidson outside.” The motorbike was his Dad’s most important possession. He’d be heartbroken or angry. Over the next few scenes, Terry becomes more responsible and caring towards his family. He encourages his family to succeed. “You keep ‘elping your Mum wiv ‘er exam- ok?” Terry becomes a friendly and a much more trustworthy character at the end.

One of the main settings in the novel is 56 Croxley Street. This is described as “tall”, “straggly hedges that hid the garden,” “tangles of barbed wire” and “the windows were all boarded up”- Buddy thought it was there to stop something from getting out. These descriptions of the house creates a spooky atmosphere and a frightening mood because it is terrible seeing tangles of barbed wire-it makes you think that someone is going to trip you or worse, behead you with it. It is also shocking to see windows boarded with wood.

In between the novel, Buddy had a scary nightmare, known as the nightmare scene. Nigel Hinton creates tension, by using short sentences, for example, “He was in that house. It was very dark. He was alone.” This is effective because it attracts the reader’s attention. It creates tension and also suspense. The author also uses a variety of adjectives and other descriptive words to create pictures in the reader’s mind.

In conclusion, I enjoyed reading this fabulous book, even though the story-line was confusing. The book has a few descriptive and interesting events, for example, the Nightmare scene. Nigel Hinton created a tensed atmosphere by cleverly, using short sentences. There were some scenes, where Nigel Hinton could have improved, for example, Buddy stealing the �5 note from his Mother’s purse. She could have written a tensed atmosphere, where Buddy is stealing the money. Overall, it was a well-written novel. I would star-rate this book as a four star, because some of the storyline, was confusing.