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Click Here To Purchase Ghost Tango

Author: Janeen Lenford

Publisher: W.L. Ransom Press

ISBN: 978-0-9797830-3-6

Janeen Lenford has been a classroom teacher and a Reading Specialist for 25 years. She supervised a GED program in a medium custody prison for adult men and is currently a professor at Metropolitan State College in Denver.

After receiving a poem from an inmate she wrote a response that evolved into a small edition of free verse. Thus we have her new book.

Ghost Tango is a story written through the use of poetry, describing Ledford’s time visiting men in prison. She portrays what these prisoners are thinking by use of her poetic flair and captures the reader with her unique story telling where she ends up meeting some extraordinary inmates. 

Ledford reminds us these are human beings with feelings and souls - despite their crimes we should all learn to forgive and see that each convict has a gift of his own. She teaches them to write and reads fairy tales to them to brighten their spirits in such miserable places as their dark cells.

Each inmate learns that stories are lovely - they have their own story to tell too.

Ledford writes later of an ex-inmate, speaking of the desperation he felt and the knowledge that sometimes fate deals a losing hand.

“He was a prisoner, he was convicted but guilt belongs to all of us, guilt like innocence weaves the fabric of the soul”.  

These are a wonderful use of words and sentences like that stay in your mind a long time after turning the last page. They cause you to think and question what each individual feels and that it doesn’t matter if you have a criminal record, we are all humans in this world together.

I loved the tale of a young man who only spoke Spanish and when he was convicted and sent to the grey cells he taught himself to read the Bible although he insists, “I don’t believe anything it says”.  

Perhaps it doesn’t matter if he believes it or not - just the fact he taught himself to read is an amazing feat and proves that jail can change a person. You just have to believe it.

Ledford reveals that while these criminals, or however else you choose to label them, may seem fierce they are not. They simply want to reach out to someone and because no one gives them a chance, they feel the need to stay in gangs and carrying a knife   seems like their only escape.

After reading this I felt I had more of an understanding towards these hooligans and I believe they are people just like you and me who have taken the wrong path in life but wish to make a fresh start. 

Give this riveting book a chance and prepare to change your views forever.