Powerful. Alfonso is a young teen interested in history, the arts, and music. His dad is soon to be released from prison where he was unjustly incarcerated (innocent in other words). As Alfonso is buying a suit to welcome his dad home, he is shot and killed by a security officer who mistakes a hanger for a gun.
This book takes on police violence, and racism in a graphic novel format. Alfonso ends up being a ghost, which nicely ties in with his school production of Hamlet, that he would have participated in had he been alive. Other ghosts teach him about their lives, that were cut down by police. In some aspects it reminded me of A Long Way Down by Reynolds, since he is on a train and at various points meets other ghosts (like the elevator), and in other aspects it reminded me of Ghost Boys by Jewel Parker Rhodes. Both of those books were excellent, if you haven't had a chance to read them do so now.
All three books are strong; this book is particularly strong when it compares Alfonso's death with school shootings where suspects are "escorted" rather than being killed by police. I do think readers will want to research some of the ghosts portrayed, and the author nicely has a synopsis of each at the end of the book.
I do have a harder time reading graphic novels than narratives, but this book would make a nice addition to any MS or HS classroom library.
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