THE MOUSE RAP

Mouse is a nice, bright 14-year-old—but not quite sure how he feels about his dad turning up after an absence of eight years to date his mom and to make a clumsy effort to be friends with him. Mouse is also interested in gifts—but not enough to threaten his long-term friendship with buddy Styx, who is as tall as Mouse is short. During an eventful Harlem summer, the two are involved in a treasure hunt: the grandfather of one of the girls in their group knows another old codger who knows a kid in Queens whose grandmother once showed him where a gangster hid his loot. There really is money hidden—not as much as they imagined, but, still, found amid some satisfactory TV publicity; more important, Mouse weathers his first romance and reaffirms his friendship with Styx. Introducing each chapter with a dozen or so lines of rap, Myers uses its musical devices to splendid advantage in Mouse's narrative. Puns, rhythms, and glancing humore enrich a text that would have intrigued James Joyce with its inspired use of sound and allusion. Meanwhile, Myers paints a memorable portrait of a good kid who still likes to confide in his mother but who is finding that he may want to keep the sex life he's about to have private—and whose adventures can be as funny (and as fundamentally innocent) as Woody Allen trying to rob a bank. A beautifully written, thoroughly entertaining caper; an impressive addition to Myers' already impressive Oeuvre.