Ghost Boys, by Jewell Parker Rhodes

A very quick but very powerful read! This is the story of a 7th grade boy who is playing with a toy gun in his neighborhood and is shot by police who think his gun is real. However, there is much more to the story than that, and the more the layers unfold the further we are pulled into the deeply embedded racism that permeates our culture. Ghost Boys tells the story through a variety of lenses, including Jerome, the main character, his new-found friend, his sister, his grandmother, Emmett Till, the daughter of the police officer who shoots and kills him, the bullies at school...Rhodes really weaves a lot of the questions and emotions that an incident like this has on people, a community, and a nation, into a pretty concise story. Historical fiction in the sense that Rhodes brings in Till and other young black boys who have been shot and/or killed in our nation, and continue to be, as the racism our nation was built on continues to infest and infect who we are. I didn't always like the style Rhodes chose to write in, and for a few pages at the start I didn't know if I could continue with the book. But I did, and I'm glad I did, and I think you should, too. This is an important story, and we should all be thinking about it, discussing it, and figuring out together how to make things right. 5 paws!