Jason Reynolds is passing the baton to a new character in the next book of his beloved Track series of middle-grade novels, People magazine reports.
Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books will publish Reynolds’ Coach in the fall. It will be the fifth installment in Reynolds’ series of books about runners on a middle-school track team.
Reynolds kicked off the series in 2016 with Ghost, which followed Castle “Ghost” Cranshaw, a young sprinter with a troubled past. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus wrote of the novel, which was a National Book Award finalist, “An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds’ promising relay.”
Three more books followed, each focusing on members of the Defenders track team: Patina, Sunny, and Lu.
Coach will follow the Defenders’ coach, Otie Brody, as a child whose father disappears along with Otie’s beloved Air Jordan running shoes.
“It’ll be cool to see how people respond to this character that so many people have been asking about for so long,” Reynolds told People. “I used to say I’d never tell his story, so I hope there are some people ready to tease me about buckling. I also am interested to see if any of those kids who read Ghost when it first came out are still interested in the world. I mean, some of them might even be teachers now!”
Coach is slated for publication on Oct. 14.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
