Smackdown the 10th

Round 3

Vanessa, Deb, Norma, Joelle

  vs

         Ghost Boys                The Prince and the Dressmaker

Vanessa: The story behind the Prince and the Dressmaker is lovely and although I appreciate that storyline, it was a reaaaaallllly short story. For me, it could not hold up to the meat of Ghost Boys. Ghost Boys was not a five star book for me it’s likely because it is a softer, more elementary version of the Hate U Give (and I loved the Hate U Give). So although my story is short, it is not the short story that is moving on. Ghost Boys FTW 

Deb: To be completely honest, I didn’t love either of these books. “The Prince and the Dressmaker” is a book I would have in my classroom and I think it would resonate with some students, but I didn’t find it to be overly engaging. “Ghost Boys” is my winner this round, although I wouldn’t say it's my favorite book this year. I do think it is a good read and gives students an accessible entry into modern day civil rights issues and the historical racism which paved the way for some of the issues which persist in the present. 

Norma: I concur with what Vanessa and Deb wrote. The Prince and the Dressmaker was an easy read but was just o.k. Ghost Boys was a bit better but I didn’t love it. It was an easy read but not as compelling as it could have been. It didn’t hold my attention for long periods of time. Given the choice between these two, my pick to move forward is Ghost Boy.

Joelle:  This was totally apples and oranges I thought.  The plots were so different, the characters were so different.  I loved the Prince and the Dressmaker, read it twice and will probably steal this copy, but I totally agree, it just didn’t have the heft (?) to move the story on.  Honestly, it didn’t really have the heft to say anything new or challenging about the ideas behind it either; at least Ghost Boys did that I thought, even if it was quite boring at times.  Which was strange because I expected to love Ghost Boys from the premise alone. And I did like it a lot, but it almost didn’t have the ooomphf it needed to compete either. I’ll say Ghost Boys for the win.