YA Materials, Literature Log, Book #14: Long Way Down

Title: Long Way Down

Author: Jason Reynolds

Category: Verse


Will's beloved older brother Shawn was shot and killed yesterday. The two boys have been close for years, since their dad died, and Will's been on the streets long enough to know how this goes: if your brother gets murdered, you find out who did it and pay back the favor. So Will takes his brother's gun and gets into the elevator from his seventh-floor apartment, certain he knows who did this and that he can do what he has to. Until ghosts begin getting on the elevator with Will, ghosts from his past, from Shawn's past, and they have questions for him. Questions he needs to consider before he gets off this elevator.


Wow, this book was moving. I first heard about it several months before taking this course, and it was at the top of my to-read list since, so I'm very glad for the opportunity to finally read it. I found Reynolds' poetry to be well-done, a quick read, and with just the right amount of impact, moving the story of Will's long elevator ride along to the end in a way that almost made me cry. I think this is an important story for teens, especially those who, like Will, grew up on the streets, where gang in-fighting is common. I would use this book in a poetry or social justice-related capacity, perhaps both at once, and I feel I could work some creative projects into the study of this novel to further teens' understanding (such as crafting a poem from the point of view of Shawn, or one of the elevator ghosts).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

YA Materials, Literature Logs, Book #20: Dear Martin

Title:  Dear Martin Author:  Nic Stone Category:  YALSA's Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults Justyce is an intelligent boy in his senior year of high school at a private, highly acclaimed school. That doesn't matter, though, when one night he finds himself the victim of racial profiling when he was simply trying to get his drunk girlfriend home. Even months later, Justyce suffers from painful memories of handcuffs being snapped around his wrists and the fear he felt that night. In an attempt to combat this racial injustice, Justyce begins to write letters to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and tries to "live like" him when he can. However, the more time goes on, the more Justyce notices racial microaggressions everywhere at his predominantly white school, and he can't sit by and let it happen, not after what he experienced. Dear Martin is such a powerful book, much like Long Way Down . Its characters feel real, like kids that really exist in many communities all over
Read more

YA Materials, Literature Log, Book #11: The 57 Bus

  Title:  The 57 Bus Author:  Dashka Slater Category:  YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults title On a bus trip home from school, the skirt of agender teenager Sasha was set on fire by another teen, Richard. The two did not know each other, and went to different schools. Richard and his friends, who dared him to set Sasha's skirt on fire, thought it was funny that they looked like a boy dressed as a girl, and Richard impulsively caused damage. He did not intend for Sasha to be hurt as badly as they were. This book covers the lives of both teenagers before the incident, Sasha's recovery in the hospital, and the court case that followed, as Richard was charged with hate crimes for his actions. I must admit, I had not heard of this event before choosing this book to read this semester, and I found it very interesting. Through reading the book, I feel like I gained an understanding of both Sasha and Richard, and how nuanced things like this are. I feel that this book cou
Read more

YA Materials, Literature Log, Book #15: Girl in the Blue Coat

Title:  Girl in the Blue Coat Author:  Monica Hesse Category:  Historical Fiction Hanneke lives in Amsterdam in 1943, surviving by smuggling black market goods to wealthy clients in order to provide for her mother and disabled father. She's good at what she does, though she has never taken the time to dig past the black market trade into the revolution she knows is happening under the noses of the German invaders now occupying her city. However, when one client asks Hanneke to find a teenage Jewish girl she was hiding, Hanneke's drive to solve the mystery leads her straight to the heart of the revolution, and to finally see the pain that is being caused all over Amsterdam. I am very glad that I read this novel! I've read a great deal of WWII fiction, though none besides this one set in Amsterdam, and I found it interesting to get a peak into life in the city during German occupation. I found Hanneke to be a little self-centered at times, but I loved seeing her growth. I thi
Read more