BUDDY

Corn-pone language cripples this wholly inadequate picture-book biography of the rock ’n’ roll pioneer. From the day the infant Buddy is “howdied . . . into this ol’ world” through his early years when, “Boy, howdy! Just five years old and he lassoed first prize” at a talent show, into his young adulthood when, “Yeehaw! It was cooler than cool,” he and a friend opened for Elvis, Bustard keeps up a relentless Grand Ole Opry patter that leaves no “g” undropped. The child reader who perseveres through this will learn that Holly’s meteoric rise to success began when he was given a guitar in the sixth grade. Cyrus employs a pastel palette as he depicts the teenage Holly listening to the jukebox and the radio, soaking up country, gospel, and the blues, but although the text gives such influences lip service, it cannot give Holly enough depth to explain his place in the pantheon. In its slavish desire to include every West Texas-ism imaginable, it insults West Texans, Holly—whose singing sounds downright cultured next to this—and the reader. (author’s note, discography, bibliography, web sites) (Picture book/biography. 5-8)