Ghost (RUN SERIES): 1

Product Information

This book is the first of Jason Reynolds’s middle grade series about track, and what a beginning this is. In addition to training the Defenders to be competitive runners, Coach also teaches them to work together as a team, helping them learn to be responsible and empathetic. More than just a sports story, it was a sensitive, realistic look at a young person dealing with trauma and trying to avoid the crushing effects of racism, poverty, and abuse. But when Ghost impulsively challenges an elite sprinter to a race—and wins—the Olympic medalist track coach sees he has something: crazy natural talent. The one grip and it's a good grip is that the book leads up to the 1st track meet and he leaves us hanging.

Jason Reynolds' dialogue and characters feel so real to me, and when the characters do things, even things I don't particularly like, as Ghost does at one point in this story, I follow along, knowing Reynolds will take me on an interesting journey.

This novel was just so satisfying because Jason really introduced Ghost's struggles, and everyone else's, in a way that a younger child could understand. He knows because when his dad came at him and his mother on one violent night, running was the only way to get away. Mike Lupica and Tim Green may rule the field but that doesn’t mean other people don’t make a lot out of athletics.

Twelve-year-old AJ lives within a stone’s throw of the London Stadium, and his dream is to one day run there. Running is never something he plans to do, just like he never plans to get into altercations at school. Ghost eventually does, with his mother's approval, becoming friends with three other newbies to the team. But now, after challenging a sprinter to a race at the local track, he’s won himself a place on an elite running team. Work with your physical education department to organize a Ghost-inspired class, trying out some of the training exercises and races.

Ghost would be at home both in a middle grade and YA section, and thus is of interest to pre-teens and younger teens, especially ones who will see some aspect of their own lives reflected in Ghost’s. Running from mistakes (forgive the cliché), from very real threats, for your life, and for your team. But he's not just running toward the finish line, he's running away from his past and the anger he's got buried inside.

Jason Reynolds is an American author of novels and poetry for young adult and middle-grade audience. When I go out to the schools to booktalk, twelve books in tow, I occasionally get the question of which of the year's books is my personal favorite.I took my month break after what should have been the impetus for major conflict (when Ghost steals the shoes) because I just couldn't figure out how it was going to be the source of enough conflict to make me want to keep reading and to make me want to see Ghost come through on the other side. Can Ghost harness his raw talent for speed and meld with the team, or will his past finally catch up to him?