Clayton Byrd Goes Underground (First edition.)

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 hes with his grandfather, Cool Papa Byrd, and the band of Bluesmenhe cant 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 Claytons mother forbids Clayton from playing the blues. And Clayton knows thats no way to live.Armed with his grandfathers 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.