Starred Review "I'm your father," the man tells teenage Jimmy Little in the dim hallway of the New York City tenement. They don't know each other. Crab, the father, has been in jail for nine years. Critically ill, he's escaped from the prison hospital. He wants to clear his name and wants his son to love him and believe in him. As they drive to Chicago, then down to Crab's childhood home in Arkansas, the police close in, and Jimmy sees the failure of his father's dreams, both in prison and out ("Anything I could have been is gone"). The climax, the moment of truth, is not an expression of love, but a cry of anger: "You don't even know how to be a father."Myers has never written better. He roots the universal father-son quest in a stark social realism, from the inner city to the rural South. Running through the story is the misery of prison, "worse than being a slave"; Jimmy thinks of Crab crying, locked in a cell in the darkness. The scenes are cinematic, taut; the hesitant conversation, sometimes warm, sometimes hostile, keeps falling off into a silence that holds the dreams of what could have been. The main characters are drawn with quiet intensity, and there are also spare vignettes on the road--a weary stranger on a Chicago bus; a malnourished country child clutching a blonde doll; a glimpse of past segregation; a flash of beauty. As in Scorpions , Myers allows no sentimentality, no quick fix of self-esteem. Jimmy's hope is that he has a loving foster mother to return to and a chance to break from his own prison dreams. (Reviewed Feb. 1, 1992)

Gr 7-10-- A poignant story of motherless, 14-year-old Jimmy Little, whose convict father takes him on a search for truth, identity, and family. Whisked away from the stability of a homelife with his devoted grandmother, Mama Jean, Jimmy confronts the harsh realities of his father's life on the run. Jailed for his involvement in an armed robbery and falsely accused of killing a man, Crab escapes from prison to convince his son of his innocence. What Jimmy discovers is a man desperate to establish a relationship with his son but unable to break free of a lifestyle of stealing and moving on that leaves little room for security. On their highway odyssey, Crab becomes increasingly sick with a kidney ailment. Following a climactic encounter with the man who accused him, Crab is again arrested and hospitalized. For Jimmy, the flicker of hope that he and his father might work things out becomes a realization that love is built on trust, concern, and honesty. Through terse dialogue and characterization, Myers conveys a powerful message about the need for parent and child to believe in and respect one another. By story's end, the boy understands that to fully appreciate someone else's life you must first give meaning to your own. Whether from urban or rural backgrounds, single or double parent families, readers will find this universal journey of self-discovery gratifying. --Gerry Larson, Chewning Junior High School, Durham, NC

Fifteen-year-old Jimmy hasn't seen his father, Crab, since he was a baby. Myers artfully and gradually reveals the truth about Crab: he's been in prison for the last nine years but is now critically ill; he has escaped in order to clear his name and earn his son's love and respect. This is one of Myers's most memorable pieces of writing.

An eminent author who's excelled with both tragedy (Scorpions, 1988, Newbery Honor) and funny, lighthearted novels writes in a serious vein but offers a realistic gleam of hope. Jimmy, 14, has been raised by his beloved, dependable Mama Jean,'' a friend of parents he doesn't remember; his mother is dead, and his dad,Crab,'' is in prison for killing a man in an armed robbery. Suddenly Crab shows up, claiming that he's on parole and has a job in Chicago. Jimmy agrees to go with him, but Crab's lies begin to unravel even before they leave New York: he has kidney failure, and has escaped from a prison hospital (When they start operating on an inmate, I don't know what they'd be thinking''); the job is an illusion. The two go on to Arkansas, where Crab hopes old friend Rydell will vouch for his innocence: Crab was convicted of murder as the result of another associate's plea-bargaining. Rydell, who once betrayed Crab with his silence, betrays him again by calling the police; Crab surrenders, then dies soon after in the hospital. Myers builds a poignant picture here of a failed man whose clumsy reaching out to his son comes too late to make a real bond. Yet Crab does leave a legacy: going home to Mama Jean, Jimmy—a bright, honest, loving boy who has recently been floundering in his inner-city school and exhibiting signs of real depression—resolves that the next generation will be different:He would know just how he was like his son...and where their souls touched and where they didn't.'' Sober, thought-provoking, rich in insight and detail: another splendid achievement. (Fiction. 12+)"