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Yet, this is so much more than a simple story of a disgruntled runner, who jumps into races and then dashes home without the medal or trophy he deserves. His grueling training regimes, often running 100 to 200 miles per week with punishing hill work in all sorts of conditions, boggle this reader's mind. Eventually, John has to go beyond the conventional 10 mile and marathon distance races at the time to enter "the splendid and total isolation of ultra-distance". Now the distances are 40, 50, and even 100 miles, with races going anywhere from 12 to 24 hours. The following year the number of white runners doubled, with a 15-year-old Dave Upfold, who had begun training with Tarrant occasionally, also competing. With John Baddeley, Elaine Claxton, Pat Connell, Lyndam Gregory, Neville Jason, David Jarvis, Frances Jeater, Peter Kenny, Ian Masters, Don McCorkindale, Gavin Muir, George Parsons, Nina Wadia, Malcolm Ward, Derek Waring, Peter Whitman, William Wortley and Peter Yapp. Jason Reynolds is a master of voice and dialog; the audiobook narration was fantastic. I felt like Ghost was actually sitting with me and telling me the story. I would highly recommend the audio for this title!
Why I finished it: Even his training partners, men who spent countless hours with him, considered him difficult to like, stubborn and selfish, yet, each man admired his determination and drive. Tarrant suffered from debilitating stomach problems which often caused him to vomit or have diarrhea many times a race. (Despite this, he won several!) Once, to get his stomach ready for an ultra-distance race, he prepared his stomach by eating a half pound of cheese and drinking a half cup of lukewarm tea. He then ran forty miles with no other sustenance, winning easily. While training to break the world record for a 100-mile race, he logged over 5,000 training miles in a single year. A clear motivator for Tarrant was his childhood. He spent the majority of WWII and a few years afterward in a government home with his little brother. It was an important moment in his development, and the boys’ self-reliance may have been responsible for his ferocious concentration and determination." In 1958 a letter finally arrived from the AAA informing Tarrant that his ban had been overturned. Although exact reasoning was not given, the decision came just one month after Harold Abrahams - 100m gold medallist at the 1924 Paris Olympics and influential member of various athletic committees - wrote an article highlighting crude deficiencies in the case against Tarrant. Consider the way that the author contrasts Glass Manor with Sunny’s neighborhood in Chapter 7. How does this contrast help you understand Ghost? Jason Reynolds always manages to squeeze numerous topics into his books without making the narrative feel over crowded. Ghost touches on thievery, drug abuse, gun violence, bullying, honesty, family dynamics, friendship, and finding healthy ways to channel anger and hurt into positive action.Two years later Tarrant was finally diagnosed with stomach cancer. He died on 18 January 1975, aged just 42. His second Comrades looked like being a complete disaster but was salvaged by a gutsy display that saw him finish 28th after suffering debilitating stomach issues along the way - far beyond what had seemed possible at halfway. But just as in Liverpool, there were also numerous races where he failed to finish, often because of the stomach complaints that plagued his career. On any given day he could reign supreme or be seen staggering away, arms clutched around his abdomen. Castle Crenshaw (or Ghost, as he wants to be called) knows he can run fast. He knows because when his dad came at him and his mother on one violent night, running was the only way to get away. Life hasn't been super kind to Ghost - the kids at school make fun of him because he's poor and he carries around the weight of his father's betrayal.
Ghost must come to terms with what he's running from and decide where he's running to: "you can't run away from who you are, but what you can do is run toward who you want to be." Throughout the novel, Ghost has a number of adults who act as advocates for him: Mr. Charles, Coach, his mom, and even Principal Marshall. Consider the importance of each of these figures in Ghost’s life. Then write an essay or prepare a speech about a trusted adult in your own life. Why do you trust this person?
Work with your physical education department to organize a Ghost-inspired class, trying out some of the training exercises and races. How did this experience enrich your understanding of Reynolds’s novel? On the morning of 6 September 1970, as runners gathered in Stanger for the Gold Top Marathon, a 50-mile race to Durban, there was a solitary white competitor: John Tarrant. He won it in five hours 43 minutes. A fourth-place finish was more than respectable, but below par in the eyes of Tarrant. He returned the following year, this time while entertaining the idea of emigrating.
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