Castle Cranshaw is a black boy, around 7th grade, who finds his way onto a competitive inner-city track team. Introducing himself to his new team, he uses his self-given nickname "Ghost" because ever since he was a victim of domestic gun violence, he's just felt like that word describes him.
Though this series is popular in the upper elementary grades at my child's school, some might consider it a better for fit the lower middle school grades. Besides the domestic gun violence, the book matter-of-factly references "junkies" and a "dope man" who sells drugs at the local basketball court. There's also a separate mention of an addict who overdoses.
The book is a first-person narrative, and the voice is authentic, poor grammar and all. The main character is a realistic portrayal of a kid trying to figure things out while carrying around a lot of angst. He understands that his single mother works hard to provide for him, and he wouldn't mind the knock-off sneakers and the free meals he gets from the cafeteria where his mom works - except that he gets bullied for those things in school. The author so effectively relates Ghost's inner monologue that I really feel for him when he has two mortifying experiences two days in a row. And while it's easy to know right from wrong, I can understand why Ghost makes the poor decisions he makes, and how he came to make those decisions, despite knowing better.
A few things kept me from giving this book a higher rating. Mostly I was disappointed in the abrupt ending, which came just as I thought I was on the cusp of a celebratory climactic ending. I'm the first person to deride an over-the-top perfect ending, but I can think of several ways the book could have ended with more closure while avoiding that trap. I can only assume that the author wants us to focus not on the finish line, but on the training and experiences that get us there.
Also, it didn't quite sit right with me that twice in the book Coach helped out Ghost in very significant ways without telling Ghost's mother. I get that Ghost and Coach were forming a relationship built on trust, but I think there are certain things that are important enough that mom really ought to know about them, especially since Ghost is still just around 12-13 years old, and many readers are even younger than that. Telling mom didn't have to be major events in the story, maybe just something that could have been tied up in a denouement.
Finally, one of my pet peeves is one-dimensional bullies, and Brandon Simmons seemed to fit that profile. I just think it's too common for children's books to have one-dimensional bullies, and I wish more books would try to show that bullies aren't just purely evil children, they are usually acting out for some reason or another. Within the very last pages, there is a hint that maybe there is more to Brandon than meets the eye, and I'm hoping that his character will be fleshed out more in the subsequent books, which I'm looking forward to reading.
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