Long Way Down

Product Information

I was invigilating in a GCSE English room recently, and I picked up this book whilst I was waiting for the students to enter! Faber Members get access to live and online author events and receive regular e-newsletters with book previews, promotional offers, articles and quizzes. Although paced extremely well, it was such a quick read that I didn't have time to properly digest what I was reading. He peels back the individual stories that led to this moment in the elevator and exposes a culture inured to violence because poverty, gang life, or injustice has left them with no other option. And while reading the book, sometimes I didn't comprehend why it chose to have line breaks in certain places and not others.

The main idea of Long Way Down is to understand Will's dilemma and rationale for wanting to seek revenge on his brother's killer. He lives on the 7th floor and the entire book is set in the lift as it travels from his floor to the ground.It’s such a powerful metaphor for toxic masculinity and the ways in which it prevents boys and men from knowing how to cope with trauma in meaningful, productive ways – not through their own faults, but because they’re never been shown a better way. If you are reading this, and you happen to be one of these boys, first of all, you're reading this Jason's master plan is already working (muahahahahahaha) and second of all, know that Jason totally feels you.

I don't have too much to say other than I think this is a really effective coming of age story about how violence and toxic masculinity affects so many young black teens. At the next floor, a young woman enters the elevator, glances at Buck, and comments on the cigarette smoke. To my mess of a brain, if poetry doesn't rhyme or have a prominent rhythm or pattern, it just seems that the enter key was pressed in random places. When his older brother Shawn is shot dead in front of him, Will is overcome with grief, despair and fury.

Sara has extensive knowledge in teaching literacy skills to struggling students and students who speak another language.

The man is Buck, a man who used to be like a big brother to Shawn, the man who gave Shawn the gun Will now carries, and a man Will knows to be dead. It was such a pleasure to meet you both, and I really appreciated how smoothly and professionally you ran everything.That said, I still absolutely loved this book and cannot wait to see what Jason Reynolds releases next. You guys were so fab and Dawn was such a lovely presence in the schools - I will absolutely be in touch next time I'm in your neck of the woods. The rules that have been set by his family and community, because validation lies there and it’s the only way a situation has ever been handled. I can't wait to get my hands on a finished copy, to reread, sit with his words and turns of phrase, and find the spots that bear repeating to kids in our classrooms.

This was such a powerful read, I hope readers everywhere and of all ages (teen and up) read it and are affected by it in a positive way. Recently named the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Jason has appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and CBS This Morning. Next onto the elevator is the man Will has been waiting for since he was three years old: Mikey Holloman, Will's father. Long Way Down is a novel written in verse that tells the story of fifteen-year-old Will who seeks to venge his murdered brother Shawn. Those individuals who came from households and grew up surrounded by gangs, gun violence and grief and who have all been painted with the same brush in the media.His vision of art and writing is to see empathy extended, more and more empathy extended, right across all barriers and boundaries.