Starred Review ALA Booklist

Starred Review In a simple, lyrical series of poems, Grimes speaks in the voice of Damon, a child in Harlem, whose missing daddy's left a hole and who finds a mentor in Blue, who lost a son to the streets. It's a scary place (A boy got shot / At school last month). Lagarrigue's strong realistic acrylic paintings show the poignant connection between the needy child and the gentle, heavily built man in the dangerous neighborhood, where wedges of blue sky are sandwiched in between the roofs. Blue is a dream-perfect father figure, and some metaphors are obvious, as when Blue urges Damon to climb (You know I'll be right here / In case you fall), but the words and paintings show the hard place and the child's yearning for safety and strength. Damon and Blue spar every day, and the expressive pictures show their punches are almost an embrace. In the most beautiful poem, Damon's feeling about Blue is in the action and the visual detail: Blue's hands, calloused and tender, are strong stories, and He tells them / sometimes when / I let him hold mine. A great picture book for older readers. (Reviewed October 15, 1999)

Starred Review for Publishers Weekly (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

In 14 knowing, heartfelt poems, the author invites readers to witness the friendship that blossoms between a fatherless African-American boy and a tough-looking man who has lost his son to the streets. Though each of these accomplished poems could easily stand alone, together they form an enticing story," said <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">PW in a starred review, praising the artist's "remarkable color sense." Ages 4-8. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Dec.)

Horn Book

In fourteen poems, an African-American boy talks about his friend Blue--a man his mother grew up with, who has decided to take young fatherless Damon under his wing. The poems are accessible and filled with imagery, and the intergenerational friendship is believable, though Damon sometimes sounds older than he is. The unsentimental acrylic paintings aptly reflect the poems.

Kirkus Reviews

This against-the-odds book from Grimes (Jazmin's Notebook, 1998, etc.) tells of an African-American boy living in a neighborhood that cuts him no slack, and the man who helps keep his feet grounded and his self-esteem steady against the occasional buffeting of his peers. Damon and his mother have just moved to a new apartment when an old friend of the mother's introduces himself: Blue, a rather steely character wrapped in shades and enigma. Damon (who has just lost his father) is wary of Blue; he gives the man a chance only when it becomes evident that Blue is not about to move in on Damon's home turf. Blue (who "had" a son, now lost to the streets or worse) offers advice of haiku-like simplicity, teaching Damon to be his own man: anger is a dangerous waste, fear useless unless subverted, men don't hit women. Grimes gets across more subtle life lessons as well in both rhymed and unrhymed verse, on the dignity of work, and the sheer physical pleasure of sport when competition isn't the sole motivating factor. It is a story of a boy who is old for his age, but not callous—and perhaps saved from callousness by Blue. Lagarrigue's illustrations are brooding gardens of color that hold the forces of disorder and menace at bay, while Damon's cool earnestness—as well as his courage and independence—brighten each page. (Picture book. 6-10)

School Library Journal

Gr 2-5-A child's suspicion of the new man in his mother's life grows into admiration and love in this set of linked poems. "When We First Met," young Damon recalls, "I circle, look him up and down and let/Him know his grin's not winning points with me," but all resistance melts in the face of Blue's respect, his quiet strength, his willingness to teach and to listen, and to look out for Damon's safety. By the end, Damon is hoping, one day, to be "Like Blue"; "Not fierce/In black leather/Or built like/A heavyweight/Boxing machine/But like that/Other Blue I've seen/The one who/Says he cares/And shows it." Lagarrigue debuts with a set of twilit, impressionistic, sparsely populated street scenes in which Blue, with his shaven head and heavy frame, leans hugely but attentively toward his diminutive companion. Damon mentions his mother several times, but because she appears in the illustrations only once, she remains a background presence as man and boy bond.-John Peters, New York Public Library Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.