Joining a list of excellent books that includes The Hate U Give and All American Boys amongst others, Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes is a story about police violence and racial prejudice toward African American boys. What makes it stand out for me is that it is the first MG novel on the topic we've gotten. Yes, I do think it's MG even if my library shelves it in the Teen section. (I have THOUGHTS on this.)
Jerome is enjoying a bit of rare freedom to play outside when someone calls the police on him. He has a toy gun (one he knows his family would not approve of him playing with). The officers who arrive on the scene don't ask questions. They just shoot. Now Jerome is a ghost hovering around as his family grieves. The only living being who can actually see him is the daughter of the man who took his life. Sarah is struggling with implications of her father's actions and the reality of the boy she is getting to know. Joining Jerome and Sarah is the ghost of Emmet Till. Jerome and Sarah have to figure out how to help each other and the people they love most move on and try to make a difference.
Nothing I wrote in that synopsis is a spoiler as you get all this information rather early in the book. This is not a book about surprises and plotting (though the plotting is well done) so much as it is about the journey and themes. The narrative shifts between dead Jerome and alive Jerome so the reader gets all of the pieces to what happened a little at a time. Jerome has a strong voice and is indisputably young. He is only twelve when he dies. Sarah is likewise twelve, and you get a true sense of her youth too as she struggles to understand what's happened and come to grips with her father not being quite the man she thought he was. Again she is so very young.
Rhodes handles this narrative well and kept it well within the reach of the intended MG audience. I am impressed by how well she managed that. All of the characters have depth. The historical thread involving Till is educational and relevant to the story being told and the characters' journeys. The plotting is superb. Rhodes keeps the reader engaged from beginning to end while filing the story with layers and nuance. Thematically this is a masterpiece that touches on the complexities of policing in America while also not pulling any punches about what needs to change and how we are, on the whole, failing an entire population of people. This is done at the perfect level for the MG audience to take it in and comprehend it.
Share this with the kids in your life. Talk about it. There can never be enough awareness of how we let our internal bias rule us or how deep institutionalized racism in this nation goes.
Jerome is enjoying a bit of rare freedom to play outside when someone calls the police on him. He has a toy gun (one he knows his family would not approve of him playing with). The officers who arrive on the scene don't ask questions. They just shoot. Now Jerome is a ghost hovering around as his family grieves. The only living being who can actually see him is the daughter of the man who took his life. Sarah is struggling with implications of her father's actions and the reality of the boy she is getting to know. Joining Jerome and Sarah is the ghost of Emmet Till. Jerome and Sarah have to figure out how to help each other and the people they love most move on and try to make a difference.Nothing I wrote in that synopsis is a spoiler as you get all this information rather early in the book. This is not a book about surprises and plotting (though the plotting is well done) so much as it is about the journey and themes. The narrative shifts between dead Jerome and alive Jerome so the reader gets all of the pieces to what happened a little at a time. Jerome has a strong voice and is indisputably young. He is only twelve when he dies. Sarah is likewise twelve, and you get a true sense of her youth too as she struggles to understand what's happened and come to grips with her father not being quite the man she thought he was. Again she is so very young.
Rhodes handles this narrative well and kept it well within the reach of the intended MG audience. I am impressed by how well she managed that. All of the characters have depth. The historical thread involving Till is educational and relevant to the story being told and the characters' journeys. The plotting is superb. Rhodes keeps the reader engaged from beginning to end while filing the story with layers and nuance. Thematically this is a masterpiece that touches on the complexities of policing in America while also not pulling any punches about what needs to change and how we are, on the whole, failing an entire population of people. This is done at the perfect level for the MG audience to take it in and comprehend it.
Share this with the kids in your life. Talk about it. There can never be enough awareness of how we let our internal bias rule us or how deep institutionalized racism in this nation goes.
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