Jewell Parker Rhodes's Ghost Boys is a 2018 middle-grade novel about Jerome Rogers, a twelve-year-old Black boy in Chicago who is shot dead by a white police officer. The novel takes a mystical turn when Jerome becomes a ghost and learns about his purpose in the afterlife from the ghost of Emmett Till, another victim of racial prejudice.
On December 8, Jerome becomes friends with Carlos, a Mexican-American boy whose family has just moved to Chicago from Texas. Carlos gives Jerome a realistic-looking toy gun to play with. While playing make-believe in an abandoned lot by himself, Jerome sees a car racing toward him. He turns to run and is immediately hit in the back by two bullets fired by Officer Moore. Four months later, now a ghost, Jerome observes Officer Moore testifying at a preliminary hearing that he killed Jerome because he was "in fear for his life," having believed that Jerome was a large adult who posed a threat to him. Despite racial bias being a clear factor in Jerome's death, the judge determines that there isn't sufficient evidence to charge Moore with a criminal offense. During the hearing, Jerome speaks with Officer Moore's daughter Sarah, who can see Jerome and speak with him. Initially believing her dad did nothing wrong, Sarah now realizes the extent of unconscious racial bias throughout the American justice system; she becomes determined to raise awareness about disproportionate police violence against Black people. After hearing Emmett Till's harrowing story, Jerome learns to assume his own role as a storyteller who must bear witness and promote peace.
Exploring themes of systemic racism, social and economic inequality, and social progress, Rhodes makes the injustice of the American status quo legible for young readers. By depicting the relationship between Jerome's and Emmett Till's deaths, the novel connects past events with the present social climate to provide children with a take on racism that's understandable and relatable.
Ghost Boys has received accolades that include the 2019 Jane Addams Children's Book Award for Older Children, 2018 NAIBA Book of the Year for Middle Grade, and 2019 NCTE Charlotte Huck Honor Book. It was nominated for the 2020 Texas Bluebonnet Award Nominee, the 2018 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Middle Grade & Children's Books, and the 2022 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award Nominee. In 2022, Rhodes released a Spanish-language edition of the novel.
