Bud the Spud

Available September 1, 2012

Summary

Bud was a kid, like any other kid. He liked pizza and ice cream. He liked to watch TV. But what happens when a kid (like any other kid) eats way too much junk food and watches way too much TV, and never, ever leaves the couch? You guessed it—he turns into a couch potato. Literally! You won’t believe what happens to him next. . . .

In a unique feature, the book has three separate endings—three different outcomes for poor Bud—which range from the positive and uplifting to the decidedly macabre. Kids will scream and laugh and wince (it scores a 10 on the gross-out scale), while some parents may initially think the comic mayhem is too over-the-top—until they see their kids giggling and reading the book over and over.

And this is a very good thing, because behind the humor is a serious message. This is a stealth weapon to help combat childhood obesity, a tool to convince young people that aspiring to be a couch potato is no aspiration at all.

Bud the Spud was created to be read aloud, and has been field-tested with children of all ages, from elementary through middle school—though teens love the book too, even when they’re pretending to be too cool for it!

About the Author

Adam Byrn Tritt, MEd, CH, LMT, is a poet, an essayist, a screenwriter, a teacher, a shaman, a social activist, a humorist, and (according to friends) a mensch. Besides the book you are holding now, he is the author of The Phoenix and the Dragon: Poems of the Alchemical Transformation, a collection of his poetry, as well as several works of nonfiction.

Adam won the 2006 EPPIE Award for Poetry in an Anthology and is listed in Who’s Who in US Writers, Editors, and Poets. He has been a social worker and an educator, and holds degrees in Psychology, Education, and English. In 1995 he was awarded an honorary doctorate for his work in religious tolerance and for the creation of TurningPoint, a nonprofit program providing alternative medicine to low-income individuals. He continues that passion today in the healthcare clinic he and his wife, Lee, dreamed of and created together—the Wellness Center.

Today he is equally at home speaking in lecture halls, giving public readings in bookstores, and visiting elementary school classrooms, where he can be found surrounded by children begging him to read Bud the Spud just one more time (while their parents beg him to stop).

Adam lives and writes—often simultaneously—in Palm Bay, Florida, with his son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter; his daughter, when she comes to visit; a dingo; and a ridiculously large alligator, all under a very big tree. His website is AdamTritt.com.

About the Illustrator

John Goldacker, known far and wide as “Java John,” is a graphic artist, illustrator, and photographer based in Merritt Island, Florida. A designer of music-related posters, CD covers, festival posters, t-shirts, and more, John also illustrated River Dragon, a children’s book about legendary Brevard County landmark Annie the Dragon. He has also been featured in Photoshop Creative magazine, and has had his posters reproduced in the 2009 books PhanArt: The Art of Phish Phans and HOPE: A Collection of Obama Posters and Prints.

In 2008 and 2009, John was one of thirty-five artists selected to be a part of Gibson’s GuitarTown Orlando and GuitarTown Miami, having painted original artwork on two ten-foot-tall Gibson guitar replicas. The seventy guitars were donated by the artists and then auctioned, raising approximately $400,000 for local charities. In December 2009, Brevard County Beachside Resident magazine ran a three-page article on John’s artwork, and had him design a holiday-themed cover featuring Bob Dylan.

John’s photos from various music concerts over the past two years permanently grace the hallways of the King Center for the Performing Arts in Melbourne, Florida, and his photography was used on the cover of Freebo’s newest CD Something to Believe. His website is KoolBeanz.com.