Clayton Byrd Goes Underground

Reviewed by: Jill O'Connor - Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School, Brunswick, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: February 7, 2018

Review

Williams-Garcia's MG story is of a boy and his grandpa and the music that binds them more deeply than an E chord. Clayton loves his Cool Papa and the blues music that emanates from Papa's guitar and from his very soul. The problem is that Clayton's mother, Cool Papa's daughter, despises the music that kept her father on the road for her entire childhood. When Cool Papa unexpectedly passes, Clayton's mother sells almost every last thing of Papa's labeling it as "old stuff...taking up too much space" with no regard for how much Papa meant to Clayton. The lack of understanding and empathy shown by Clayton's mother will make your blood boil, but it sets up the action of the book as Clayton pockets his blues harp (which he has to steal back from his mother's room after she confiscates it), puts his grandpa's porkpie hat on his head (the only thing that he manages to save from the sale of Papa's things), and hits the road to try to meet up with Papa's gang of musicians, the Bluesmen. His big plan is to show them the music in him and go on the road playing the blues. It's not the most thought-out plan, but Clayton is desperate for some connection to Cool Papa's world. Unsurprisingly, things don't go as Clayton hopes. In the end, he needs to be rescued by his mother who, with some help from Clayton's father seeing past her own hurt, recognizes the value of the bond between boy and grandfather. Like a good blues song, this book runs you through the gamut of emotions from sadness to anger to fear to wistfulness finally depositing you at the doorstep of hope with a thrum and a twang. Highly recommend.

Overall Book Score: excellent