Sheldon (Shelly) Sheridan is a boy who has never felt right about himself and always dreamed of being a ballerina dancing on his toes. While watching The Nutcracker ballet on stage he is forced to leave early only to discover his mother has died in a car accident. Her lawyer, a cold harsh man informed Shelly and told him that he is the trustee of his mother’s estate. He will also pick which schools Shelly attends. In addition, he will be living with his uncle in Las Vegas.
Shelly had no idea he had an uncle and now he is being uprooted from everything he has ever known. His nanny Greta who he loves will not be accompanying him and the pain of losing his mother and his new living conditions is more than the twelve-year-old can handle. He meets his uncle, who calls himself sarge and his husband Will and then their cook Estella a retired ballerina from Mexico. Shelly has always leaned on dance whenever he got upset but now since his mother’s death, he insists he is giving it up.
There is a studio in the house and despite his determination not to dance he can’t resist. It doesn’t take long before he feels at home and learns to love his new dad’s and his new grandmother. There is so much love in the house, but Shelly doesn’t know how to approach the fact that he likes girls’ things not boys. But his new family doesn’t say anything when he wants a canopy bed and pink and lavender accessories.
It would take a new friend he meets at the all-boys school his mother’s attorney picked out for him that the question of whether he is transgender made him consider that could be what he is. He never felt right in his body but couldn’t figure out what he was. He wasn’t gay but he wasn’t a boy either.
Sarge and Will willingly embrace Shelly’s desire to find out more about being Trans, to them they had a son and would now have a daughter and would love either one the same. Shelly sees the light at the end of the tunnel, maybe he can be a ballerina even though ballerinas are always female.
This was a story about finding who you are and not letting others force you to be what you are not. It was at times a sad story realizing what transgender people go through, the name calling, the bullying when all they want is to be accepted.
Fortunately, in Shelly’s case he has support from his two dads and grandmother, but his old nanny can’t accept what he has become and causes trouble that could affect Shelly’s life. This is a book that every teen should read, it would give them a much better understanding of what it is like to live by what others expect rather than living your true self.
The title of the book Bud is what Shelly’s uncle called him an uncle who became his dad.
Bud 
