I've never met a Jason Reynolds book I didn't like.

This was just a pitch perfect middle grade / youngish YA book that was a total delight from start to finish. I’ve been trying to read some boys marketed to boys to round out my librarian knowledge and this was a great start. I have to say that as someone who has very little interest in sports, I was surprised at how much I liked this story about a 13-year-old urban black kid Castle Crenshaw, aka “Ghost,” joining a track team. More than just a sports story, it was a sensitive, realistic look at a...

“You can't run away from who you are, but what you can do is run toward who you want to be.” I don't actually have much to say, it was a quick and enjoyable read.

I am posting this review late because I read it earlier in the year for a postal bookswap, which was hush hush until everyone had seen all the titles.I've always heard of Jason Reynolds in the context of being a good choice for what we in librarianship call "reluctant readers." I can definitely see the appeal here with sports, single parent, outsider, urban, black representation and more. I loved that Ghost isn't perfect but that the consequences take a while to show up (not as didactic as some

Wish I would have had this book alongside all my Beverly Cleary books back in middle school. Like Cleary, Jason Reynolds clearly remembers what it was to be a kid — the private humiliations, the silliness, the outsized misconceptions, the way the tiniest bit of support can change a day.

I thought this was utterly fantastic. In my opinion, this should be required reading in schools everywhere.I'm excited to read more by Jason Reynolds. He's an outstanding author.

It's no secret that I love everything with Jason Reynolds's name on it, but GHOST was really something special. It follows an impoverished kid name Castle "Ghost" Cranshaw who accidentally joins a recreational track team after beating the team's fastest sprinter in an impromptu race. Castle's been through a major trauma, and as his self-given nickname--GHOST--suggests, he does his best to move through the world under the radar to avoid trouble. Of course he fails. And that's what I loved about t...

BOOM! Third time reading this and it still pulls me straight through each time. from a 5th grader today: "I loved how you feel like you're Ghost. You get mad at someone, then forgive them. It feels like your emotions are building up until Ghost takes the shoes. Then they break when his coach brings him back to the store." definitely reaching kids in Berkeley!

This is a generalization, but in my experience librarians really enjoy reading within their comfort zones. They’ll travel outside of them from time to time but always they return to the books that they like the most. Children’s librarians are just the same. The fantasy readers stick to fantasy. The realism fans go with realism. Graphic novel readers with comics. When I served on a yearly committee of librarians in New York I’d notice that some books were difficult to get anyone to read. Horse bo...

Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.Ghost is a deeply moving book with several important messages for young readers. Castle Crenshaw goes by the name Ghost, because he's a wicked fast runner. The first time he ran -- truly ran -- he was running for his life: running ain't nothing I ever had to practice. It's just something I knew how to do.Now that he's older, Ghost puts his natural talent to work by running track. But he's not just running t...

I saw this on some award nomination list--I can't remember which one. And I don't really care which list it was--Ghost ought to win. It should win all the awards. It's a spectacular book with a perfect voice and exquisitely told story. I cried through the last 20% or so of the book. It's not sad--it's just beautiful enough to move a cracked chunk of concrete to tears. Despite the fact that the protagonist, Castle, is a dirt-poor black kid and I grew up in a middle-class white family, I could ide...

When a 13-year-old boy tells me, "I hate to read. But. Have you read Ghost by Jason Reynolds? 'Cause that's awesome!" I am absolutely adding that to my stack.

I read this after my middle daughter recommended. She's 12 and an athlete in her own right. The voice is realand perfectly depicts the challenges kid face on and off the field. It shows them how to face those challenges in an approachable way, and I love that it features characters who look like my kids and that they can directly relate to.

Well that was a great middle school novel about overcoming challenges and believing in yourself.Ghost is an endearing character who is struggling to move past a traumatic event. Whilst people have particular perceptions of what kind of person he is, his own self worth and expectation that he will be let down are also a major theme in this book. I loved that he found a strong supportive role model in his coach and the determination of his mother to make her own success. I thoroughly recommend thi...

What a great story!I was at the library looking for another book to read and I have seen this cover several times and I decided I wanted to read it. I haven't read about the track world, so I thought, let's learn about running.Ghost is a great character. He is into the Guinness book of World records and he likes sunflower seeds. He has a great insight into life as well. He wants to be on the team and one day he decides to show up these fancy people on the track and show them he can run too. He r...

Jason Reynolds' dialogue and characters feel so real to me, and when the characters do things, even things I don't particularly like, as Ghost does at one point in this story, I follow along, knowing Reynolds will take me on an interesting journey.Ghost and his mother are not well off; his father attempted to shoot them one drunken night, and Ghost retains a certain amount of fear and desire to run from that traumatic night. His mother, meanwhile, is struggling financially, and is studying to be...