Summary

Twelve-year-old Jerome is shot by a Chicago police officer while playing with a toy gun in his neighborhood. As a ghost, he meets Emmett Till — murdered in 1955 — and discovers a long procession of Black boys killed before their time. Jerome's only connection to the living is Sarah, the white daughter of the officer who shot him, who is grappling with what her father has done. Together, across the boundary between the living and the dead, Jerome and Sarah try to understand how history keeps repeating itself — and what it would take for it to stop.

Why It Matters

Ghost Boys arrived in 2018 at the peak of a national conversation about police violence, race, and the American justice system. It became one of the most frequently assigned middle-grade novels in American schools, used by teachers who needed a text that could open discussions about race and just...

Themes & Motifs

Diction & Style

Historical Context

Contemporary America — specifically the post-2012 period of the Black Lives Matter movement and the national debate over police violence and racial justice: Ghost Boys is a direct artistic response to the national crisis of police violence against Black Americans in the 2010s, and specifically to the killing of Tamir Rice — a twelve-year-old Black boy ...

Key Characters

Talking Points

1. Why does Rhodes begin the novel with Jerome alive and ordinary, before anything terrible happens? What would be lost if the novel began with his death?
2. Emmett Till tells Jerome: 'You're not the first. You won't be the last. Not unless something changes.' Why does Emmett say this first, before anything else? What does it tell you about what the novel is going to argue?
3. The toy gun is obviously plastic. Jerome knows it. Carlos knows it. The neighborhood kids know it. Why doesn't Officer Moore take the time to know it? What does the novel say this is about?
4. Rhodes gives Emmett Till a voice in the novel — she writes his dialogue, his personality, his point of view. What are the risks of doing this with a real historical person? What does the novel gain from this choice?
5. The ghost in this novel can see everything but cannot change anything. How does this describe not only Jerome's specific situation but also the general situation of the dead throughout history?

Notable Quotes

Why Read This

Because at 208 pages, you can read it in a weekend, and you will think about it for years. Because the ghost of Emmett Till talking to a twelve-year-old from Chicago in 2018 is the most efficient way anyone has yet found to explain to young reader...