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 him from playing the blues. Clayton knows that’s no way to live.Armed with his grandfather’s brown porkpie hat and his harmonica, Clayton runs away from home in search of the Bluesmen, hoping he can join them on the road. But on a journey that takes him through the parks and subways of New York, Clayton learns more than just the blues.
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.