The Mouse Rap

Fourteen-year-old Mouse is spending a summer in Harlem, and boredom is not a problem. He narrates his days in rhyme and runs with a tight group of friends that includes his best friend Styx, Bev and Sheri.

Several things compete for his attention. His father walked out on the family eight years earlier and is now trying to get back into his son's life. Beverly, a new girl from California, is happy to kiss Mouse, but she also seems interested in other boys. Sheri keeps pushing the group to enter a dance contest.

Then a rumor starts going around: money stolen in a bank robbery in the 1930s is supposedly hidden in an abandoned building in the neighborhood. Mouse is set on getting a share of it. The story mixes humor with a lively portrait of Harlem, and its several plot lines come together around the search.

Walter Dean Myers was an American author who wrote many books for young readers.