I love how this series centers black boys in history, in everyday life. They each have different challenges, and they each rise to meet them as best they can. For Clem, it's losing his father young, to the Port Chicago disaster, and supporting his mother through her grief. It's also his sisters stepping up to help and the whole family coping with the grief that his educated mother can't find a better job than as a maid. There's a lot packed in besides that -- Clem's intelligence, being on either side of bullying, his fear of the water that his father loved, and finding his own voice. Great story, well written. ( )

Clemson Thurber Jr. lives in the shadow of his family's grief after his father was killed in the Port Chicago explosion. He's too young to remember much about his father, and Clem feels pressure to be like him, to join the Navy like he did. His older sisters dominate and hector him regularly. Clem goes along with whatever his friends Errol and Lymon do even when they bully others, including new country kid Langston. It turns out Langston loves to read and visit the library as Clem does. Soon Clem befriends Langston, overcomes his fear of swimming thanks to the tutoring of a high school athlete, and with new-found confidence he takes on a job as a paperboy. Clem feels more secure in himself and knows "that just because I'm scared doesn't mean I can't feel brave too." Clem's growth unwinds naturally, with authenticity and humor. ( )

audio (~5 hours, narrated by Dion Graham) follows Clem from 3rd grade (when his out-of-state military dad unexpectedly passes away during the Port Chicago explosion in 1944) through the (6th?) grade and his family's subsequent hardships.

works as a standalone, with companion books about two of the other characters (Langston and Lymon). ( )