Wednesday, April 23, 2008

My Buddy by Audrey Osofsky

Osofsky, Audrey. My Buddy. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1992.

Set in a contemporary American town, My Buddy takes readers on an eye opening adventure into the life of a boy and his service dog, Buddy. The unnamed main character is a young boy who has muscular dystrophy. The boy is a strong willed and independent minded person who wants nothing more than to be able to do things for himself. Although he is not ashamed of the help he receives from his friends and family, he knows that other people cannot be expected to help him every minute and he has the desire to take his life into his own hands. The boy meets Buddy for the first time at a camp where puppies are trained to become service dogs for people who need them. Buddy was at the top of his class in puppy school and continued his training with the boy at his side. Although the training was difficult and sometimes made the boy feel as if he wanted to give up, he knew that Buddy was worth the hard work and that in the end they would be the perfect pair. The boy and Buddy eventually made it through their training and Buddy became the service dog the boy always knew he could be. At first the other kids in school would point and talk about Buddy as he helped the boy with everyday activities such as retrieving books from high shelves, throwing away trash at lunch and even picking up dropped pencils. After a while the other kids in class stopped looking at Buddy as a pet and began to accept him as worker as the boy’s arms and legs. This courageous story of companionship is emphasized by the wonderful water color illustrations that accompany the text. The illustrations alone could tell the story and they also work to highlight emotions and details that cannot be read from the text alone. Although the text may be advanced for beginning readers, the illustrations are vivid enough to grasp a listener’s attention during a read aloud.

The author of My Buddy, Audrey Osofsky received her inspiration for this book from a young boy in her neighborhood who had muscular dystrophy and his dog. Seeing the interaction between the two friends made her want to learn more. Before beginning the book, Audrey Osofsky interviewed the boy from her neighborhood, his parents and also the North Central regional director for Canine Companions for Independence. Following her interviews she also spent time at her local library researching muscular dystrophy and its effects. Although Audrey Osofsky did not have muscular dystrophy, she is considered an informed, insider author because of her dedication to the research needed to accurately portray the character who had the disability. Audrey Osofsky’s illustrator, Ted Rand was inspired by a newspaper article he read about a boy and his service dog and also researched the topic of muscular dystrophy in order to depict the characters with the utmost accuracy. Along with having a informed, insider author, this book also had an informed, insider illustrator.

The fact that the boy in the story has muscular dystrophy is clearly stated in the beginning pages of the book which allows readers to understand what they are reading about. The boy in the story is not ashamed of his disability but is instead portrayed as confronting his disability in a “matter of fact” way. The book is written from the first person perspective of the boy and there are several times throughout the book that he addresses that he can not do all of the things that other kids without muscular dystrophy can do. He explains how Buddy helps him by carrying out tasks the boy cannot do alone. However, although the boy is portrayed as needing help from his service dog, he is not portrayed as helpless. He is never seen as being upset by his disability nor do his explanations of the way he functions with the help of Buddy leave the reading feeling sorry for him. The book shows living with a disability in a positive light and can be inspirational to those effected the same or similar disability. This book helps readers accept the fact that persons with disabilities can do the things that kids without disabilities can do, but they do them in different ways. The fact that the book points out the “can do’s” and “can not’s” makes My Buddy a positive and accurate representation of a piece of multicultural literature portraying persons with the disability muscular dystrophy.

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