Jason Reynold’s newest book, Long Way Down, will have you thinking long after you’ve finished its pages. Will’s brother Shawn is killed. Will thinks he knows who did it and following the rules means he needs to take out his brother’s killer. Will didn’t make the rules. He only knows to follow them just like Shawn taught him. So when he finds his brother’s gun, he knows what must be done. Will gets on the elevator with the gun tucked in his jeans. But before the elevator goes very far a ghostly visitor joins him. A new visitor from Will’s past joins at each floor. Each of the specters have something in common. Will takes an introspective journey worthy of Charles Dickens. I could not put this book down. It is written in verse and is a quick, powerful and devastating read. Reynolds asks hard questions that made me think long after I finished the last page. How do the rules of our culture guide the choices we make in life? When an idea is pounded into you, can you make a different choice? Just like Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give, I feel my perspective grow as I get to know his characters. Even though my life is very different, my level of understanding deepens with each of Reynold’s books. Everyone needs to read this book!
Some ideas for discussing with teens:
Talk about elevator rules.
Discuss this passage, “Another thing about rules. They weren’t meant to be broken. They were meant for the broken to follow.”
Discuss the anagram alive – a veil.
Discuss the anagram scare-cares.
Discuss this passage, “He would tell me stories about how the best rappers ever were Biggie and Tupac, but I always wondered if that was just because they were dead. People always love people more when they’re dead.”
Discuss the differences and similarities of the people Will meets during his long elevator ride down.
Discuss the similarities between Long Way Down and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
What do you think Will will intimately do? What do you think his brother, Shawn meant by the last line in the book?
Hickey Picks - Young Adult Readers Advisory 