Clayton Byrd Goes Underground

Rita Williams-Garcia’s young adult novel Clayton Byrd Goes Underground (2017) was named a finalist for the National Book Award. Williams-Garcia is also a recipient of the Newbery Honor Award, Coretta Scott King Award, and Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction.

Young Clayton Byrd plays blues with his grandfather Cool Papa and other musicians in the park. He plays the harmonica and his grandfather plays the electric guitar. Clayton wants to have a solo, but his grandfather tells him that he’s not ready yet. After their jam session in the park, Clayton and Cool Papa return home, where Cool Papa serves as Clayton’s primary caretaker, making him dinner and reading to him before bed.

Juanita Byrd, Clayton’s mother, works hard at her job at the hospital, rarely seeing Clayton. She dislikes Clayton playing the blues and resents Cool Papa because he was often absent when she was growing up. However, her job often keeps her away from home and so she has a poor relationship with Clayton.



Cool Papa dies in the night and Clayton finds his body. Juanita does not allow any blues music to be played at Cool Papa’s funeral, which means that Clayton cannot play a solo to commemorate his grandfather. When the men in Cool Papa’s band start an impromptu song for him, Juanita pushes Clayton back into the pew before he can go to join them. After the funeral, Juanita sells all of Cool Papa’s guitars. Clayton quarrels with his mother and is mean to her over dinner.

After the funeral, Clayton returns to school. He finds that he has a hard time singing with the other children, and he is upset that the teacher makes him read the same book that his grandfather read him the night before he died. Unable to concentrate Clayton falls asleep in class. When his performance doesn’t improve, Juanita decides to keep him home from school for a few days. However, she forbids him from playing the harmonica.

Juanita takes Clayton to church to talk with Pastor Early. Early councils Clayton, but he doesn’t listen. Then Early tells Juanita that he wants to see her and Clayton together. Clayton thinks about his father, whom he doesn’t see often because he is separated from his mother.



When Clayton returns to school he tries hard to stay awake but still falls asleep whenever the teacher reads his grandfather’s book. Juanita tells Clayton that he must work hard to succeed and accuses him of using Cool Papa’s death as an excuse. She bans blues music from the house.

Clayton decides to run away from home. He meets a pack of boys in the subway who make their money busking and joins them with his harmonica. He is happy at first until the boys steal his money and force him to work. One of them takes Clayton’s porkpie hat which belonged to his grandfather and refuses to give it back. Clayton doesn’t care about the money but wants to stay with the boys until he can retrieve his hat.

The cops arrive and Clayton flees down a subway tunnel. He narrowly avoids getting hit by a train, escaping with the buskers once more. He decides to return home, but the boys will not give him his hat until he plays with them once more. The boys start playing on the subway, but the police come on the train and apprehend them all.



Clayton tells the police that it is his first warning and they are about to let him go, until they realize that his bag has no school books in it so they decide to arrest him as well. Clayton starts to cry and the other boys tease him. He is taken to jail, and if someone does not arrive to get him by 9:00 p.m., he will be sent to a juvenile detention center.

Juanita arrives to pick Clayton up. Clayton gets his hat and harmonica back, but Juanita threatens to throw them away. They fight about Juanita’s feelings for her father and her careless handling of his things after his death.

When they arrive home, Juanita calls Clayton’s father, Albert. Clayton begins packing his things since he knows his mother is sending him to live with Albert. Juanita admits that they are both hurting since Cool Papa’s death but are not able to talk about it with each other. On the way to Albert’s house, Clayton and his father talk about what Clayton is feeling and Juanita’s complicated relationship with Cool Papa.



Clayton eventually returns to school and is able to get through class without falling asleep. When he comes home, he finds that Juanita has bought back one of Cool Papa’s guitars and is saving it so Clayton can learn to play it.