Ghost (National Book Awards Finalist)

A National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature.

Ghost wants to be the fastest sprinter on his elite middle school track team, but his past is slowing him down in this first electrifying novel in a new series from Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award–winning author Jason Reynolds.

Ghost. Lu. Patina. Sunny. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds with personalities that are explosive when they clash. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track team—a team that could qualify them for the Junior Olympics if they can get their acts together. They all have a lot to lose, but they also have a lot to prove, not only to each other, but to themselves.

Ghost has a crazy natural talent, but no formal training. If he can stay on track, literally and figuratively, he could be the best sprinter in the city. But Ghost has been running for the wrong reasons—it all started with running away from his father, who, when Ghost was a very little boy, chased him and his mother through their apartment, then down the street, with a loaded gun, aiming to kill. Since then, Ghost has been the one causing problems—and running away from them—until he meets Coach, an ex-Olympic Medalist who blew his own shot at success, and who is determined to keep other kids from blowing theirs.

Jason Reynolds is a?New York Times?bestselling author, a Newbery Award Honoree, a Printz Award Honoree, National Book Award Honoree, a?Kirkus?Award winner, a two-time Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award Winner, and the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors. The American Booksellers Association’s 2017 and 2018 spokesperson for?Indies First, his many books include?When I Was the Greatest,?Boy in the Black Suit,?All American Boys?(cowritten with Brendan Kiely),?As Brave as You,?For Every One, the Track series (Ghost,?Patina,?Sunny, and?Lu), and?Long Way Down, which received both a Newbery Honor and a Printz Honor. He lives in Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.

Vanessa Brantley Newton is a self-taught artist and has attended both FIT and SVA of New York, where she studied fashion and children’s illustration. Vanessa is the illustrator of Ruby’s New Home, A Team Stays Together!, and Justin and the Bully—all by Tony and Lauren Dungy—as well as Presenting…Tallulah by Tori Spelling. She hopes that when people look at her work, it will make them feel happy in some way, or even reclaim a bit of their childhood.