Ghost by Jason Reynolds  (208 pages) is a book about Castle Crenshaw and the journey he has to take throughout life. In the voice of a pre-teen boy, Castle explains everything around him. Starting with where he is from to where he lives to then the most important people and places in his life to then telling about the thing that has happened with his dad. Throughout the book, Castle will experience and tell about the things going on in his life. Castle gets an opportunity that will possibly change his life. He meets a Coach on a track team and from there on out Castle has decisions he has to make based on how he is going to act in school. If one thing goes wrong the opportunity of being able to better himself can go down the drain fast. A few times Castle does get caught up but thankfully for his Coach he believes in him and doesn’t tell Castle's mother. His Coach knows how it feels to grow up in Glassmanor so he wants to help Castle and help his mother know that not everyone in the neighborhood turns out to sell drugs to go to jail all the time. Castle's mother is always worried about him because of his behavior at school but this track team can be a change in the way Castle looks and takes on life. Once you start turning the pages of this book you will want to continue to read Ghost. 

A character in the story that helps Castle a lot is Patina “Patty” Jones. Patty comes off strong in the book but it is always in a good way. She would say things to Castle-like “Don’t pay that fool no mind. He just mad he albino”. She can come off strong but has a really good soul to her. She knows how to be there for people and knows how to make someone feel that they are welcome no matter what. Patty is important in the story because she was one of the only ones that were kind enough to let Castle feel like he was a part of the team. 

One of the more interesting characters in the book is Sunny. He is a quiet kid but when he feels someone is trustable he will open up and be kind to them. In the book, Coach told Castle or Ghost (which is the nickname Castle gave himself) that he had done a very good job at practice. In another part of the book he had to open up about some things even though it was something that he had to do, he said the book “ So, I don’t have a mom”. From there you would have to read the book to find out more about why Sunny doesn't have a mom. 

Towards the end of the book, Coach says this to Ghost,  “You can't run away from who you are, but what you can do is run toward who you want to be.”(Coach).  Coach is trying to tell Castle it is significant. After all, Castle was trying to be something he wasn’t. All Coach is trying to do is to tell his players but especially Castle that wherever you come from and how you live or who you are is never going to change but you can try and change yourself as much as you want. Accepting who you are, where you're from, how you were raised, and who you are at the moment is something important to do but in the end, you have to know that you can change yourself to be better.  That is the important theme in the entire book that who you are is who you are but you can change that. 

Finally, I would give this book a rating of 5 stars. The book just overall I believe gives a good view and story on the life of someone who has or had a harder life than others. The book is good about showing how that you can find a group of people that you believe that may not be a lot like you or have been through tough things but then you get to know them and that all changes to you all becoming family. I believe that during the book Castle has found some of his lifelong friends and people that he can call family. It gives a very good lesson that blood doesn't always have to mean family and you can grow with a group of people that you don’t even know. In the world that we live in today, it is all we really can do but believe in ourselves and know that it is ok to be who we are. Throughout the book, you will see Castle struggle but you will have to read Ghost to figure that out.