Book Review: Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: April 17th, 2018
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
A heartbreaking and powerful story about a black boy killed by a police officer, drawing connections through history, from award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes.
Only the living can make the world better. Live and make it better.
Twelve-year-old Jerome is shot by a police officer who mistakes his toy gun for a real threat. As a ghost, he observes the devastation that’s been unleashed on his family and community in the wake of what they see as an unjust and brutal killing.
Soon Jerome meets another ghost: Emmett Till, a boy from a very different time but similar circumstances. Emmett helps Jerome process what has happened, on a journey towards recognizing how historical racism may have led to the events that ended his life. Jerome also meets Sarah, the daughter of the police officer, who grapples with her father’s actions.
Once again Jewell Parker Rhodes deftly weaves historical and socio-political layers into a gripping and poignant story about how children and families face the complexities of today’s world, and how one boy grows to understand American blackness in the aftermath of his own death.
Jerome is a black boy who is only twelve years old when is shot and killed at the playground by a police officer who supposedly thought the toy gun he was playing with was real. After he dies, his spirit remains close to home. He can watch his grieving family but they can’t see him. The only person who can see him is Sarah, the daughter of the police officer who shot him. She is struggling with the dichotomy of loving her father but hating what he’s done. The realization that he’s racist (whether he knows it or not) is hard on her. She looks to Jerome to help her deal with her feelings but he cannot absolve her guilt about what her father has done.
After a while, the spirit of Emmett Till, the real life black boy who was lynched in 1955 at fourteen years old, comes to visit Jerome. It’s then that one realizes that not much has changed in sixty years. Black people are still viewed with fear and suspicion.
Ghost Boys is extremely timely, as unarmed black men and boys are being repeatedly killed by police officers with little to no consequences for the officers involved. It’s a heartbreaking story, especially for a middle-grade book. I think parents should read it with their children because it will likely bring up emotions that a child will have trouble working through on their own.
(I received a complimentary copy of this book for review.)
