Behind every bad boy is a story worth hearing and at least one chance for redemption. It's 1946 and Lymon, uprooted from his life in the Deep South and moved up North, needs that chance.
Lymon's father is, for the time being, at Parchman Farm--the Mississippi State Penitentiary--and his mother, whom he doesn't remember all that much, has moved North. Fortunately, Lymon is being raised by his loving grandparents. Together, Lymon and his grandpops share a love of music, spending late summer nights playing the guitar.
But Lymon's world as he knows it is about to dissolve. He will be sent on a journey to two Northern cities far from the country life he loves--and the version of himself he knows. In this companion novel to the Coretta Scott King Honor wining Finding Langston, readers will see a new side of the bully Lymon in this story of an angry boy whose raw talent, resilience, and devotion to music help point him in a new direction. ( )

Honestly, I think I liked this book even more than Finding Langston, which was a considerable surprise. Lymon was such an unsympathetic character in that book, and his bullying had such a HUGE impact on Langston. I absolutely love that not only is Lymon believably sympathetic in this book, but that for him, the bullying fades into a small incident against the backdrop of all the other things he's dealing with in his life. I think that's the most realistic portrait of a bully I've even seen.

This book deals with: incarceration, abandonment, being raised by loving grandparents, grief, the power of music, homelessness, abuse, and almost every conceivable range of family dynamic -- from the deeply supportive to the deeply toxic, to the well-meaning but absent, to the chosen family who take you in. ( )

children's historical fiction (~4th-6th grade) Lymon, who has unrecognized dyslexia, copes with having a mom who left him, a dad whom he rarely gets to see, and ailing grandparents Ma and Pops as he is transferred from one home to another, in 1940s Mississippi/Wisconsin/Illinois.

This is the story behind Lymon (the 11-y.o. bully from Finding Langston), and as such it is full of misfortune and sadness, but it does seem to end happily with a stable family. I think I liked the first book better, but this was also really good, and Dion Graham is always an excellent narrator. ( )

Lymon, who has music in his bones, has too many strikes against him to make growing into young adulthood easy.

Young Lymon Is an African American boy living in 1940s Mississippi with his loving, guitar-playing grandpops and ever disgruntled grandmother, called Ma. Lymon’s has a mother in Chicago, but he’s told she is flighty and when Lymon was born to his teenaged mother, Daisy, she abandoned him.

After moving to Chicago, Daisy started herself another family;

Grady is Lymon’s father, and is incarcerated at Parchman a prison camp with unspeakable bad conditions. Grady is a good man who loves his son , but when he gets out of prison, he flighty as well.
As you see Lymon has a tough life. He is a likeable child and worthy of so much more yet Lymon seems to attract negativity. When Grandpops dies and Ma sickens from diabetes, the relatives can no longer afford Lymon’s upkeep. They send him to Chicago to live with Daisy, her two sons, and her husband, Robert, who beats Lymon regularly. After Lymon takes money from Robert, the money sent by an aunt for his upkeep, the police send him to a boys’ home, which proves to be a turning point in his life.

Cline-Ransome’s is a new author for me and I recognize masterful storytelling and will read more of her work. I predict Middle school readers will be engaged in the hard life of Lymon Caldwell while learning about historical racial biases in the penal system, the plight of children during the Great Migration, the discrimination faced by Northern blacks, and more. (Historical fiction. 8-12) ( )

Please see my review on Amazon.com under C. Wong. Thank you. ( )