Even though the story focuses on a young teenage boy, both males and females would enjoy the book because it does not really include anything that is targeted towards a certain gender. Jason Reynolds provides the readers with a great novel that has the right amount of excitement but also develops Ghost’s character so well that you feel like you really know him and wish you could help him during the tough parts of the story.

I would recommend this book for anyone in elementary school/middle school or older. Throughout the novel he also finds more and more out about Coach and realizes that he might actually understand what he is going through. Even so,Ghost stays on the team and becomes friend with some of the other runners. He also made impulsive and bad decisions sometimes. Ghost lived a hard life with his mom, for they weren’t the most wealthy. At first his mom didn’t want him to join the track team and said that he needed to focus on school, not sports. The story goes on as Ghost practices with the team but struggles with school bullies, money, and his past. He assumed that he could run faster than Lu, after all he wasn’t that fast, and to the coach and whole team’s surprise, Ghost won. He was watching their first practice of the season when he challenged one of the fastest runners, Lu, to a hundred meter sprint. The day that Ghost joined the Defenders was sudden and surprising. They ran for their lives to the local convenience store and hid until the dad got arrested. Three years earlier Ghost’s dad had gotten drunk, went into a violent uncontrollable anger and tried to shoot him and his mom as they fled the house. Ghost never planned on joining the team, or any other team, in fact, the night that Ghost really learned how to run was also the most horrifying night of his life.

The book, Ghost, is the first book in Jason Reynolds track series and follows the story of seventh grader Castle “Ghost” Cranshaw as he joins the Defenders track team.

Lu by jason reynolds