Student Question
In Bud, not Buddy, what brand of pencil does Todd push up Buddy's nose?
Quick answer:
Todd Amos pushes a Ticonderoga pencil up Bud's nose. This incident occurs in Chapter 2, highlighting Todd's bullying behavior towards foster kids like Bud. Todd uses the pencil as a humiliating tool, pretending to measure how far it can go up Bud's nose, which exemplifies the cruel treatment Bud endures in the Amos household.
This section of the novel comes in Chapter 2 after Bud has been moved into the foster home of the Amos family. The narration of this chapter is interesting as it starts with the fight and Bud getting beaten up by Todd Amos and then the narration goes back to reveal to us as the reader the reason for the fight in the first place. It is clear from the flashback that Todd Amos enjoys bullying and humiliating the foster kids that his family take in as the punishment he visits on Bud is one that he has practiced on many others:
When I'd jerked up in bed and opened my eyes Todd was standing next to me with a yellow pencil in his hand. He was looking at it like it was a thermometer and said, "Wow! You got all the way up to R!"
He turned the pencil toward me, crunched up against the headboard. I saw TICONDEROGA printed on the yellow wood.
So here you have the make and also the humilating form of torture that Todd practised on Bud and others like him by showing a pencil up their nose and seeing how far it would go.
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