Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything in It

Brendan Buckley, a young biracial boy, unearths a painful family secret in Sundee Frazier’s debut middle-grade novel, Brendan Buckley’s Universe and Everything in It (2007). Ten-year-old Brendan has a scientific curiosity about life, but the summer he accidentally meets his estranged white grandfather, Brendan suddenly faces questions about race, love, and family that confound his empirical nature. Frazier sensitively addresses issues of racism, prejudice, family dynamics, and forgiveness as Brendan struggles to define his identity and make peace in his family. The novel earned Frazier the John Steptoe New Talent Author Award in 2008.

Having just finished fifth grade, Brendan is looking forward to 79 days of summer vacation during which he plans to advance to his purple Tae Kwan do belt, celebrate his eleventh birthday, hang with his best friend, Khalfani, and conduct scientific experiments. Brendan is sad that he won’t be fishing this summer: his fishing partner and good friend, Grampa Clem, recently passed away. The only grandparent Brendan has left is his grandma Gladys, Clem’s feisty widow. Gladys calls Brendan her “milk chocolate” boy because his mother, Katherine, is white, and his father, Sam, is black. Katherine never speaks about her parents, having cut off all ties with her family. She tells Brendan that his other grandpa is simply, “gone.”

Mr. Hammond, Brendan’s fifth-grade teacher, suggested he keep a notebook to record his questions and scientific research. Brendan runs with the idea, naming his notebook “Brendan Buckley’s Book of Big Questions About Life, the Universe and Everything in It.” Brendan believes that “no question is unimportant.” He craves knowledge about everything: dust, centipede legs, the ripple in fudge ripple ice cream, and who farts more, girls or boys. Brendan performs experiments and researches answers on the Internet, recording his findings in his confidential notebook. Despite his unlimited curiosity, Brendan has learned that the “One Thing” he should never ask about is his other grandpa.



On a trip to the mall with Gladys, Brendan visits a mineral and gemstone exhibit and meets the Puyallup Rock Club president, Ed DeBose. Brendan knows a lot about rocks and minerals and is excited to join the club and have a chance to go rock collecting. When Gladys recognizes that Ed is Katherine’s father, she drags Brendan away. Brendan later realizes Ed is the grandfather he has never met. Brendan is excited that Ed is a scientist like himself. He is filled with questions: where has Ed been? Why doesn’t his mother talk about him? Brendan also wonders about himself and his own racial identity. Brendan and Khalfani research Ed, discovering that he lives only eight miles away. The boys take the bus to visit him. In Ed’s trim home, Brendan notices a family photograph that includes his mother. Brendan reveals that he is Ed’s grandson, and asks Ed to teach him about rocks. Ed agrees, but wonders what Brendan’s mother will think. Brendan and Ed agree not to talk to Katherine about their meeting.

Brendan wonders what Ed did to make his mother mad and plans to use his time with Ed as an experiment to answer this question. When Brendan and Khalfani go rock collecting, they are bullied by a group of bigoted white boys. Brendan wonders why white people are mean to black people. Brendan’s dad, Sam, explains that prejudice is often passed down from parents to children. Katherine objects, saying not all children of prejudiced people are like that. Brendan wonders if his DeBose grandparents didn’t like black people.

Brendan’s relationship with Ed grows stronger. Brendan attends a rock club meeting and Ed teaches him to drive on a back-country road, like Ed’s grandpa taught him. Brendan meets Ed’s chess partner and good friend, a black man named Levi Henderson. Brendan feels that Katherine lied to him about Ed all these years and kept him hidden from Brendan, so it is o.k. for him to hide the truth that he is visiting Ed. When Katherine sees Ed dropping Brendan off at home, she is irate and yells at Ed to stay away. She tells Brendan that Ed didn’t want her to marry a black man.



Brendan needs to know why Ed didn’t want his parents to marry, and he also wants to go hunt for thunder eggs with Ed. They drive out to the Red Top Mountain and dig for rocks. Ed is trapped under a fall of dirt. Brendan takes the truck and finds two motorists who help free Ed. Together Ed and Brendan unearth a thunder egg. The find is spoiled when Brendan learns that Ed didn’t want his parents to marry because mixing races “didn’t seem right” and that “families should look alike.” Brendan is angry at Ed’s ignorance.

Ed arrives unexpectedly at Brendan’s house with an early birthday present, a rare Ellensburg blue rock. Katherine is upset to see Ed but allows him to enter the home. Ed apologizes to Katherine for keeping her away from her mother, he apologies to Sam for treating him poorly, and apologizes for being a fool and missing so much of Brendan’s childhood. Brendan understands that people can change. He recalls a fortune he got in a fortune cookie that read, “The one who forgives ends the argument.” Brendan forgives Ed and is glad to have found his grandpa. Brendan now understands more about his own identity: he is “someone who belongs to both black and white people, a mixture like a rock, my color but, much more, myself.”

Brendan Buckley’s Universe and Everything in It is followed by the 2012 sequel, Brendan Buckley’s Sixth-Grade Experiment.