Ghost Boys
by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Little Brown & Co, 2018. fiction. 214 p.
Jerome is a 12 year-old-boy from the ghettos of Chicago. The story starts when he is shot in the back by a white police officer. The story follows Jerome over the next year as he wanders as a ghost around the city, unseen by everyone but Sarah, the daughter of the police officer that shot him. At first he is angry but over time he sees how grief is affecting everyone who cared about him. With the help of other Ghost Boys, like Emmett Till, a boy whose murder jump started the civil rights movement, he gradually learns what he must do so that he, and those he left behind, can move on.
This is a very emotionally charged book relevant to recent events and issues in the news media. Rhodes doesn't sugar coat a single line of the difficult narrative. She thankfully resists the temptation to vilify the white police who shoots Jerome, but instead shows that his family is in need of healing as much as Jerome's family. Even though Rhodes doesn't flinch with her descriptions of the tragedy, she does an amazing job of keeping things on a level that I think most 12-year-olds could emotionally process. Throughout the book the reader is hoping that Jerome and Sarah will be able to forgive, and in the end, they do. This is certainly on my potential Newbery list for this year, but children and parents need to be aware that it might be upsetting to a sensitive reader.
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