Clayton Byrd Goes Underground - by Rita Williams-Garcia (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

From beloved Newbery Honor winner and three-time Coretta Scott King Award winner Rita Williams-Garcia comes a powerful and heartfelt novel about loss, family, and love that will appeal to fans of Jason Reynolds and Kwame Alexander.

Clayton feels most alive when he's with his grandfather, Cool Papa Byrd, and the band of Bluesmen--he can't wait to join them, just as soon as he has a blues song of his own. But then the unthinkable happens. Cool Papa Byrd dies, and Clayton's mother forbids Clayton from playing the blues. And Clayton knows that's no way to live.

Armed with his grandfather's brown porkpie hat and his harmonica, he runs away from home in search of the Bluesmen, hoping he can join them on the road. But on the journey that takes him through the New York City subways and to Washington Square Park, Clayton learns some things that surprise him.

National Book Award Finalist * Kirkus Best Books of 2017 * Horn Book Best Books of 2017 * Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2017 * School Library Journal Best Books of 2017 * NAACP Image Awards Youth/Teens Winner * Chicago Public Library Best Books * Boston Globe Best Books of 2017

"This slim novel strikes a strong chord."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"This complex tale of family and forgiveness has heart." --School Library Journal (starred review)

"Strong characterizations and vivid musical scenes add layers to this warm family story." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"An appealing, realistic story with frequent elegant turns of phrase." --The Horn Book (starred review)

"Garcia-Williams skillfully finds melody in words." --Booklist (starred review)

Review Quotes

★ "Williams-Garcia packs a lot of story in this slim book. Clayton's an appealing character, and his anger and loss are palpable. The neighborhood scenes are so vivid, one does not need to be a denizen of New York City to appreciate them. This complex tale of family and forgiveness has heart." - School Library Journal (starred review)

★ "Williams-Garcia packs a lot of story in this slim book... This complex tale of family and forgiveness has heart." - School Library Journal (starred review)

"Fans of Jason Reynolds and Kwame Alexander will find comfort in the portrayal of Clayton and his struggle to become a young man...Williams-Garcia shows us once again that the only answer is to lean into [our] burdens, name them, and bend them into our own score." - Meg Medina, writing in the New York Times Book Review

"This lovely novel, poignant as a blues song, explores a child's experience of profound grief, and how lonely that can be when adults don't comprehend the enormity of the loss." - Buffalo News

"Clayton is so squarely on the cusp of adolescence; the downbeat of his grief falls in with the sharp percussion of his rage against his mother to produce "that round-the-corner, back-to-tell-the-tale blues bend" the Bluesmen talk about. Readers will willingly accompany Clayton and his family in this aching blues riff." - School Library Journal

★ "Clayton's love of his grandfather and his music is wonderfully drawn, as is his grief when he loses them.... Strong characterizations and vivid musical scenes add layers to this warm family story." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

★ "With the precision of a surgeon, Williams-Garcia lifts and examines layers of Clayton's hurt and anger: the loss, but also the inability of his dismissive mother to understand... The book's through line, though, is the music, and Garcia-Williams skillfully finds melody in words." - Booklist (starred review)

"Like a classic blues riff, Clayton Byrd Goes Underground is deceptively simple yet profoundly deep. It wails, rattles, and roars in unexpectedly heartfelt and joyous ways." - G. Neri, Coretta Scott King Honor-winning author of Yummy and Tru & Nelle

"Set to the low-down howl of the blues and cool thump of hip-hop, this story is so full of heart and soul it boogies right off the page. Read it right now!" - Daniel José Older, author of Shapeshifter

"My heart went out to all the characters in Clayton Byrd. The author does an excellent job of telling many ways people can suffer and not really have the words to express the pain even to family members. She also gives readers a glimpse of how what we think are okay ways to cope can really be problems too. She does a nice job of breaking down human frailty to a young readers' level." - Connie Griffin, Children's Book Specialist, Bookworks

"Williams-Garcia writes with keen sympathy about a boy who lost the key adult figure in his life and his rage at his mother's making the loss worse." - Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

★ "This slim novel strikes a strong chord... [A] holistic portrait of a family in pain, a realistic portrait of grief and reconciliation, and a reminder that sadness and loss are wrapped up in the blues." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

★ "In an unforgettable scene, Clayton, armed with his blues harp and wearing Cool Papa's brown porkpie hat, enters the underworld of the New York City subway system, a child Orpheus, where he spends a good portion of the book meeting interesting characters and performing. As in One Crazy Summer, Williams-Garcia writes an appealing, realistic story with frequent elegant turns of phrase... The third-person voice helps to keep Clayton's story from becoming self-absorbed, as he learns to navigate the literal and figurative underworld and then find his way back to the everyday world of family, friends, and school." - Horn Book (starred review)

★ "An appealing, realistic story with frequent elegant turns of phrase. The third-person voice helps to keep Clayton's story from becoming self-absorbed, as he learns to navigate the literal and figurative underworld and then find his way back to the everyday world of family, friends, and school." - Horn Book (starred review)

"In Clayton Byrd Goes Underground, three-time Coretta Scott King Medal winner Rita Williams-Garcia has crafted an endearing family drama with all the wit, wisdom and resonance of the best blues songs." - BookPage