Ghost Boys

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

Sarah asks: 'If I were Jerome, if someone shot me with a toy gun, would they be calling my dad a hero?' What is this question doing in the novel? Why is it important that Sarah asks it herself rather than someone else telling her?

Rhodes names both famous cases (Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice) and unknown, unnamed victims in the procession of ghosts. Why include the unnamed? What does it say about how we remember — or fail to remember — historical violence?

The novel is written for middle-school readers but deals with police violence, racial trauma, and American history in ways that many adults find difficult. Is it right to assign a book like this to children? What can children handle that adults sometimes underestimate?

Rhodes depicts the shooting in less than a paragraph. The scene takes up far less space than Jerome alive and playing with his friend. Why does she make this formal choice? What would it mean for the novel's argument if the shooting were described in more detail?

Ghost Boys was challenged and banned in multiple school districts for being 'anti-police' and 'divisive.' Is the novel anti-police? What is the difference between being critical of a system and being against the people in that system?

Why does Rhodes pair Jerome with Emmett Till specifically, rather than a more recent victim closer to Jerome's own time? What does the sixty-three-year gap add to the novel's argument?

Lily keeps sitting on Jerome's bed. Jerome sits beside her, invisible. This scene repeats across the novel. Why does Rhodes keep returning to it? What is the image saying that the plot cannot say directly?

Compare Ghost Boys to The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Both are about Black teenagers killed by police violence. What does each novel do that the other doesn't? Why might you assign one to a middle schooler and the other to a high schooler?

Sarah's presence in the novel has been criticized: some readers feel that giving significant space to the white cop's daughter centers white feelings in a story about Black death. Is that criticism fair? How does Rhodes try to handle this tension?

Emmett Till's mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted on an open casket so the world could see what was done to her son. Rhodes gives Emmett a voice in Ghost Boys. How are these two choices — the open casket and the speaking ghost — making the same argument?

The novel ends without resolution: Officer Moore faces minimal consequences, the family is still grieving, and Emmett Till is still in the ghost procession. Why does Rhodes refuse to provide a more satisfying ending? What would a 'satisfying' ending have cost the novel's honesty?

Rhodes writes Jerome's voice in short, spare sentences — simple syntax, concrete language. Is this a choice about middle-grade accessibility, or is it also making a stylistic argument about Jerome's character and way of seeing the world?

How is Ghost Boys in conversation with the African American tradition of testifying — bearing witness to injustice through art, from slave narratives to the blues to hip-hop? What does Rhodes inherit from that tradition?

If you were to add one more ghost to the procession — someone killed in the time since the novel was published — who would you choose, and what would you want that ghost to say to Jerome and Emmett?

The novel is dedicated to Tamir Rice. Why is this dedication significant? How does it shape your reading of Jerome's story?

Officer Moore is not presented as purely evil. Rhodes gives him a daughter he loves and a job he takes seriously. Does this humanization make him more or less responsible for what he does? What is the novel arguing about where responsibility lies when individuals are shaped by unjust systems?

Rhodes says she wrote Ghost Boys in response to seeing the same news story repeat. How does fiction do something that news coverage cannot? Why might a novel reach children in ways that news reports fail to?

Compare Emmett Till's role in Ghost Boys to the role of the historical Emmett Till case in American civil rights history. How does the historical Emmett Till function — what did his case do for the movement? And how does the fictional Emmett Till function in the novel — what does his character do for Jerome?

The novel's title is Ghost Boys — plural. Why the plural? Who are all the ghost boys? Are there ghost girls too, and if so, why doesn't the novel address them?

By the end of the novel, has Sarah changed enough to matter? The novel is honest about the limits of her awakening. But if you were Jerome, watching Sarah walk away, would you feel hopeful?

Ghost Boys is frequently assigned alongside nonfiction texts — history of the civil rights movement, statistics on police violence, the Emmett Till case file. Does pairing fiction with nonfiction change what the fiction can do? What does each mode do that the other cannot?

Mamie Till-Mobley is mentioned in the novel but does not appear as a ghost or a speaking character. Why might Rhodes have made this choice? What would her presence have added or changed?

Rhodes writes in a very different style from Toni Morrison or Richard Wright, both of whom also wrote about racial violence in America. What does the spare, accessible, middle-grade style allow Rhodes to do that a more literary style would prevent?

Jerome watches but cannot intervene. As a reader, you observe but cannot intervene in Jerome's death. What does the novel want you to do with this parallel? What can a reader do that a ghost cannot?

Ghost Boys ends with testimony, not resolution. Does testimony matter — does bearing witness accomplish anything — if the thing being witnessed is not stopped? What is Rhodes's answer to this question, and what is yours?