Ghost Boys

by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Taking on serious, persisting issues in America, this is a deeply moving story about a young boy killed by police. The blend of story and cultural relevance is exceptional.

"After seventh-grader Jerome is shot by a white police officer, he observes the aftermath of his death and meets the ghosts of other fallen black boys including historical figure Emmett Till"--

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781432873738
Publisher:	Gale, A Cengage Company
Publication date:	01/01/2020
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	215
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Jewell Parker Rhodes is the author of Ninth Ward, a Coretta Scott King honor book, Sugar, winner of the Jane Adams Peace Association book award, Bayou Magic, and Towers Falling. She has also written many award-winning books for adults.

Editorial Reviews

In a stirring narration, Miles Harvey brings to life an American story that is chillingly familiar…Harvey captures this outsider perspective through the rhythm of his delivery, marked by short sentences and direct questions…Harvey exhibits an emotional range that further intensifies the story…In contrast, the author soberly narrates the afterword, inspiring listeners to bear witness to the truth underlying fiction. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”

AudioFile

This was one of my most anticipated 2018 books and I was not disappointed. A must read.

the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Ha Angie Thomas

* "Rhodes captures the all-too-real pain of racial injustice and provides an important window for readers who are just beginning to explore the ideas of privilege and implicit bias."—School Library Journal, starred review

From the Publisher

Deftly woven and poignantly told, this a story about society, biases both conscious and unconscious, and trying to right the wrongs of the world. Verdict: Rhodes captures the all-too-real pain of racial injustice and provides an important window for readers who are just beginning to explore the ideas of privilege and implicit bias.”

School Library Journal (starred review)

In writing that’s spare and powerful, Rhodes takes us into…a kid’s-eye-view of violence and racism that balances innocence and outrage, wrenching loss and hard-won hope.”

Chicago Tribune

Beautifully weaves together the fictional and the historical…in this gripping and all-too-necessary novel about police brutality, injustice, and the power of bearing witness to the stories of those who are gone.”

Booklist (starred review)

Written beautifully...an important novel.

WCMU Public Radio

[A] potent story that deserves to be read.

VOYA

A timely, challenging book that’s worthy of a read, further discussion, and action.”

Kirkus Reviews

Unblinkingly confronts challenging perspectives and the mutability of truth.”

Shelf Awareness

* "An excellent novel that delves into the timely topic of racism... with the question of whether or not we really have come far when dealing with race relations.

starred review School Library Connection

Ghost Boys is powerful in prose, and so important at this time. I hope parents will read this book to their children.

The Monitor

Rhodes writes in short, poetic chapters that offer graphic depictions of avoidable tragedies; her hope for a better world packs a powerful punch, delivering a call to action to speak out against prejudice and erase harmful misconceptions.”

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

2018-02-04
In a story that explicitly recalls the murder of Tamir Rice, Jerome, a 12-year-old black boy killed by a white Chicago cop, must, along with the ghosts of Emmett Till and others, process what has happened and how. With the rising tide of today's Movement for Black Lives, there has been a re-examination of how the 1955 murder of Emmett Till became the fuel for the mid-20th-century civil rights movement. With this narrative in mind, Rhodes seeks to make Till's story relevant to the post-millennial generation. Readers meet Jerome, who's bullied at his troubled and underfunded neighborhood school, just at the time that Latinx newcomer Carlos arrives from San Antonio. After finding that Carlos' toy gun may help keep the school bullies at bay, Jerome is taken by surprise while playing in the park when a white arriving police officer summarily shoots him dead. The police officer's daughter, Sarah, is the only character who can truly see the ghost boys as they all struggle to process that day and move forward. Written in nonlinear chapters that travel between the afterlife and the lead-up to the unfortunate day, the novel weaves in how historical and sociopolitical realities come to bear on black families, suggesting what can be done to move the future toward a more just direction—albeit not without somewhat flattening the righteous rage of the African-American community in emphasizing the more palatable universal values of "friendship. Kindness. Understanding."A timely, challenging book that's worthy of a read, further discussion, and action. (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews