Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

LONG WAY DOWN by Jason Reynolds is an absolute must read book. This title was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and received numerous other awards (Newbery Honor, Coretta Scott King Honor, Printz Honor, Winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award, Parents' Choice Gold Award Winner and more), plus starred reviews from essentially every major professional reviewing publication. Pretty awesome, right? Especially for a book which takes place in little more than sixty seconds – the length of an elevator ride.  

The main character is fifteen year-old Will, barely visible on the cover, who is contemplating revenge because his older brother, Shawn, has been shot. At each floor as the elevator stops, someone gets on – Shawn’s mentor, or a former classmate who died from gun violence, and so on. These friends and relatives each share a bit of the story, offer a unique perspective and teach Will something new.  Reynolds wrote this novel in narrative verse – which makes this quick read even more powerful and impactful.   

Focusing on gun violence in our society, LONG WAY DOWN was difficult to read at times, but that is an important conversation our country needs to have. Listen, for example, to the students from Parkland, Florida. Here is Emma Gonzalez:

from an article on the BBC reporting on the planned March for Our Lives to be held on March 24 in Washington and around the country.  In the author bio for LONG WAY DOWN Jason Reynolds is described as "tired of being around young people who are tired of feeling invisible." Well, they are taking action and we should be proud that they are speaking up.

Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke

BLUEBIRD, BLUEBIRD by Attica Locke is a mystery and police procedural of sorts, hopefully the first in a series to feature Texas Ranger, Darren Mathews. The setting is so well-drawn as to almost be a character itself -- a one stoplight town, named Lark, in East Texas where a black man (lawyer from Chicago) and a local white woman are found murdered within days of each other. Racial tensions reminiscent of Jim Crow days permeate this well-written novel from an award winning author. Locke’s other works include Pleasantville, winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction; The Cutting Season which won the Ernest Gaines Award; and the Edgar-nominated Black Water Rising.

Temporarily on suspension for helping a family friend, Ranger Mathews heads to Lark to investigate what appear to be racially motivated deaths. He encounters several memorable characters like the spouses, named Randie Winston and Keith Dale, of the murder victims or Wally Jefferson, the well-off proprietor of a white supremacist bar, or Geneva Sweet who runs a café catering to black clientele.  It’s a suspenseful and very complicated situation for Mathews who garners little support from local law enforcement or from his own estranged family.    

One of the most apt descriptions I’ve heard comes from Walter Mosley who says that “BLUEBIRD, BLUEBIRD reads like a blues song to East Texas.” BLUEBIRD, BLUEBIRD received starred reviews from Kirkus and Library Journal. Consider pairing this highly recommended mystery story with National Book Award nominee A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton or the winner, Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward.