Ghost Boys

Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Realistic Fiction

Text from the back cover:

Twelve-year-old Jerome is shot by a police officer who mistakes his toy gun for a real threat.  As a ghost, Jerome observes the devastation that's been unleashed on his family and community in the wake of what they see as an unjust 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.  Jewell Parker Rhodes weaves sociopolitical layers into a 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.

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