Bluffton: My Summers with Buster

by Matt Phelan, Matt Phelan (Illustrator)

Overview

Matt Phelan, graphic novelist extraordinaire, presents a rollicking tribute to vaudeville, small-town dreams, and Buster Keaton as a boy.

In the summer of 1908, in Muskegon, Michigan, a visiting troupe of vaudeville performers is about the most exciting thing since baseball. They’re summering in nearby Bluffton, so Henry has a few months to ogle the elephant and the zebra, the tightrope walkers and — lo and behold — a slapstick actor his own age named Buster Keaton. The show folk say Buster is indestructible; his father throws him around as part of the act and the audience roars, while Buster never cracks a smile. Henry longs to learn to take a fall like Buster, “the human mop,” but Buster just wants to play ball with Henry and his friends. With signature nostalgia, Scott O’Dell Award–winning graphic novelist Matt Phelan visualizes a bygone era with lustrous color, dynamic lines, and flawless dramatic pacing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763650797
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	07/23/2013
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 8.16(h) x 0.83(d)
Lexile:	GN370L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Matt Phelan is the author-illustrator of the award-winning graphic novels The Storm in the Barn and Around the World. He is also the illustrator of Always and I’ll Be There by Ann Stott and The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, winner of the Newbery Medal. He lives in Philadelphia.

Editorial Reviews

★ 08/26/2013
Historical detail, a rich sense of place, expert pacing—Phelan (Around the World) keeps all the plates in the air in this fictionalized recreation of the boyhood summers of Buster Keaton. In lightly sketched, gently tinted watercolor panels, Phelan conveys the excitement a troupe of summering vaudeville actors brings to sleepy Bluffton, a small resort town on Lake Michigan. It's easy to understand the envy the boy narrator Henry feels for his new friend, the child star Keaton, who performs in a comic act in which he's tossed about by his father. Buster's stunts and pratfalls are polished, and his signature deadpan gaze is already perfected. Simultaneously, Phelan hints at darker truths behind Buster's poise: his father's drinking, and the charges of child abuse that dog their act. "Buster's never been hurt in his life!" his red-faced father claims. "Well, not bad, anyway." Over several summers and endless baseball games—Buster's real passion—Henry considers the meaning of his own ordinary life in the light of his friend's celebrity in a way that's believable and satisfying. An unapologetically nostalgic piece of Americana. Ages 9–12. Agent: Rebecca Sherman, Writers House. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Thrilling—a spirited, poignant coming-of-age vignette and an intriguing window into a little-known chapter in vaudeville history.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Phelan’s watercolors are expertly rendered and soft in focus, but pop at just the right moments, simultaneously showing the sleepiness of the town, the glamour of show business, and the energy of summer. ... Bluffton is a rich and engaging story with a lot of charm, and will be a great choice for early chapter-book readers and graphic-novel fans.
—School Library Journal (starred review)

Phelan’s soft, pastel watercolors perfectly depict the idyllic lakeside summer as well as the riotous circus antics and elaborate pranks Buster and his family pull, both on and off the stage. There’s enough background about vaudeville, Buster Keaton, and the real-life Actors’ Colony in Bluffton to make this an informative glimpse into American history, but it’s compellingly, solidly centered on Henry’s discovery that, while the grass on the other side may appear greener, more exciting, and full of the thrill of fame, the grass on his own side, where he’s happy being himself, is just as good.
—Booklist (starred review)

Historical detail, a rich sense of place, expert pacing — Phelan keeps all the plates in the air in this fictionalized recreation of the boyhood summers of Buster Keaton.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Phelan, whose appended author’s note indicates he is a lifelong Keaton fan, carefully balances the joy of his subject’s outrageous pranks (rigging the walls of an outhouse to suddenly coming apart, surprising its occupant) with poignancy, including the agonized expressions on Buster’s face when his drunk father berates him. The fictional elements weave seamlessly together with the historical ones for a look into the past that will surely win Buster Keaton some twenty-first-century fans.
—The Horn Book (starred review)

This graphic novel illustrates this simple story of a boy finding his true self with soft watercolor illustrations, using words only when necessary. The work has an overall charm and simplicity that goes with its time period.
—Library Media Connection

Wonderfully evocative... With a beautiful economy of phrase and image, Mr. Phelan shows Henry's happiness in the company of his glamorous friend but also the jealousy that begins to trouble him.
—The Wall Street Journal

Matt Phelan presents a beautifully illustrated, nuanced story of how the friendship between Henry and Buster stretches them both in unexpected and sometimes challenging ways. ... The evocative watercolor illustrations also are a visual treat as they underscore the impact that Buster has on Henry's life.
—Scripps Howard News Service (syndicated)

[A] gorgeous graphic novel...
—Newsday

From the Publisher

Gr 3–6—Henry and his hometown of Muskegon, Michigan, may be ordinary, but neighboring Bluffton is anything but. The year is 1908, and vaudevillians have come to the resort town to relax for the summer. Intrigued by the visitors, Henry heads off to Bluffton and meets a young actor named Buster Keaton. The two boys quickly become friends, but each of them yearns for what the other has-Henry wants a life of show business and fame, while Buster wants a normal life filled with baseball and fishing. Phelan does an excellent job of showing an accurate portrayal of Buster Keaton, from his dangerous physical comedy routines to his alcoholic father; the facts flow so smoothly that it does not feel like historical fiction at all. Henry is undeveloped in the beginning and simply moves along Buster's story, but the character really comes into his own later on when feuding with Buster and trying to put on a show of his own. Phelan's watercolors are expertly rendered and soft in focus, but pop at just the right moments, simultaneously showing the sleepiness of the town, the glamour of show business, and the energy of summer. An author's note and some photos explain a bit more about the real Buster Keaton. Overall, Bluffton is a rich and engaging story with a lot of charm, and will be a great choice for early chapter-book readers and graphic-novel fans.—Peter Blenski, Greenfield Public Library, WI

School Library Journal

In this winsome, sparely spun graphic novel by Phelan (The Storm in the Barn, 2011), Henry Harrison gets a tantalizing taste of the outside world when a young Buster Keaton and more vacationing vaudevillians tumble into his small Michigan town. The scene opens on a tranquil Muskegon street, with a glimpse of the suspender-sporting Henry sweeping up his dad's hardware store. Strolling men in bowler hats, long-skirted women and a June 1908 calendar offer the initial whiff of an era long gone. Nothing like an elephant to shake things up! When the show people come to town one summer, nearby Bluffton springs to life, as does Henry's yearslong infatuation with Buster Keaton, who, wincingly, was then best known as the tossed-around but indestructible "Human Mop." Frame by frame, in pencil and watercolor, the artist captures the joys of lakeside summers of fishing, baseball and harmless pranks, all the while skillfully communicating the emotional intensity of youth. Despite the painful sense of longing the worldly Buster stirs up in Henry, a 1927 epilogue of sorts assures readers that Henry finds his own path in life…and his own special brand of show biz. An author's note explains that the Actors' Colony at Bluffton really did exist, from 1908 to 1938. Thrilling--a spirited, poignant coming-of-age vignette and an intriguing window into a little-known chapter in vaudeville history. (art not seen in full color) (author's note) (Graphic historical fiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews