Long Way Down
Table of Contents
About The Book
“Astonishing.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A tour de force.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A Newbery Honor Book
A Coretta Scott King Honor Book
A Printz Honor Book
A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021)
A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner for Young Adult Literature
Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature
Winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award
An Edgar Award Winner for Best Young Adult Fiction
Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner
An Entertainment Weekly Best YA Book of 2017
A Vulture Best YA Book of 2017
A Buzzfeed Best YA Book of 2017
An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds’s electrifying novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds—the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother.
A cannon. A strap.
A piece. A biscuit.
A burner. A heater.
A chopper. A gat.
A hammer
A tool
for RULE
Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he?
As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator?
Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES.
And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if Will gets off that elevator.
Told in short, fierce staccato narrative verse, Long Way Down is a fast and furious, dazzlingly brilliant look at teenage gun violence, as could only be told by Jason Reynolds.
About The Author
Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant, a Newbery Award Honoree, a Printz Award Honoree, a two-time National Book Award finalist, a 2024 MacArthur Fellow, a Kirkus Award winner, a UK Carnegie Medal winner, a two-time Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award Winner, an Odyssey Award Winner and two-time honoree, and the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors and the Margaret A. Edwards Award. He was also the 2020–2022 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. His many books include All American Boys (cowritten with Brendan Kiely); When I Was the Greatest; The Boy in the Black Suit; Stamped; As Brave as You; For Every One; the Track series (Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu); Look Both Ways; Stuntboy, in the Meantime; Stuntboy, In-Between Time; Ain’t Burned All the Bright (recipient of the Caldecott Honor) and My Name Is Jason. Mine Too. (both cowritten with Jason Griffin); Twenty-Four Seconds from Now...; and Long Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Honor. His debut picture book, There Was a Party for Langston, won a Caldecott Honor and a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor. He lives in Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.
About The Reader
Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, a Newbery Award Honoree, a Printz Award Honoree, a two-time National Book Award finalist, a Kirkus Award winner, a Carnegie Medal winner, a two-time Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award Winner, and the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors. He’s also the 2020–2022 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. His many books include All American Boys (cowritten with Brendan Kiely); When I Was the Greatest; The Boy in the Black Suit; Stamped; As Brave as You; For Every One; the Track series (Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu); Look Both Ways; Stuntboy, in the Meantime; Ain’t Burned All the Bright; My Name Is Jason. Mine Too. (with Jason Griffin); and Long Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Honor. He lives in Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.
Product Details
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio (October 24, 2017)
- Runtime: 1 hour and 43 minutes
- ISBN13: 9781508241584
- Ages: 12 - 99
Awards and Honors
- ALA Newbery Honor Book
- ALA Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book
- ALA Notable Children's Books
- CCBC Choices (Cooperative Children's Book Council)
- Lincoln Award: Illinois Teen Readers' Choice Master List
- CBC/NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book
- Flicker Tale Award (ND)
- ILA Young Adults' Choices
- Oregon Battle of the Books List
- ALA Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book
- Grand Canyon Reader Award Nominee (AZ)
- Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best
- Kansas NEA Reading Circle List High School Title
- NYPL Best Books for Teens
- NCTE Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts
- YALSA Teens Top Ten (TTT) Nominee
- Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award Master List (IL)
- Great Lakes Great Books Master List (MI)
- Blue Hen Book Award Nominee (DE)
- ILA Notable Books for a Global Society
- Volunteer State Book Award Nominee (TN)
- Iowa High School Book Award Nominee
- High School Sequoyah Book award Master List (OK)
- Evergreen High School Book Award (WA)
- North Carolina Young Adult Book Award Nominee
- Edgar Allan Poe Award
- Nutmeg Book Award (CT)
- ALA Top Ten Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
- Young Adult Reading Program Reading List Selection (SD)
- Soaring Eagle Book Award (WY)
- Truman Reader Award Final Nominee (MO)
- Isinglass Award Nominee (NH)
- Great Lakes Book Award
- Amelia Elizabeth Walden Finalist (NCTE/ALAN)
- ALA Margaret A. Edwards Award
- ALA/YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults - Top Ten
- Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year Selection Title
- ALA Notable Children's Recording
- Odyssey Honor for Audio
- National Book Award Longlist
- TAYSHAS Reading List Top Ten Title (TX)
- Pennsylvania Reader's Choice Award Nominee
- Amazing Audiobooks for YA
- Wisconsin State Reading Association's Reading List
- Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award Nominee
- Virginia Readers’ Choice Award
- Louisiana Teen Readers' Choice Award Nominee
- Walter Dean Myers Award
- Arnold Adoff Poetry Award
- Arkansas Teen Book Award
- Oregon Reader's Choice Award Nominee
- Intermediate Sequoyah Book Award Master List (OK)
- Great Texas Mosquito List
- California Young Reader Medal finalist
- Milwaukee County Teen Book Award
- South Carolina Book Award Nominee
- Land of Enchantment Black Bear Book Award
- Rhode Island Teen Book Award Honor Title
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
- Book Cover Image (jpg): Long Way Down Unabridged Audio Download 9781508241584
- Author Photo (jpg): Jason Reynolds Photograph (c) Adedayo "Dayo" Kosoko(0.1 MB)
Any use of an author photo must include its respective photo credit
