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.

This writing spiritually, passionately, and intellectually addressesthe issues surrounding the silence of both church and secularcommunity concerning violence against women. The authorshares a model of ministry that engaged women who courageouslydescribe their victimization, bringing the reader into the heart oftheir woundedness. This ministry model has proven effective inbreaking the silence of abuse while providing a safe, nurturingenvironment in which victims of abuse may begin the lengthyprocess of healing. This book is a must-read for women andmen alike, as we are all somehow associated with a femalevictim-survivor of violence and abuse.

An awkward but handsome fifteen-year-old, Donnie Darning has a brilliant mind but a dysfunctional family. His father is overbearing, and his mother drowns her problems in alcohol. Fortunately, his dismal world doesn't compare to the vast universe he finds inside books, but he is tired of living life vicariously through reading stories.

Josie Rosado changes all that. Beautiful and exotic, the seventeen-year-old daughter of a Romani immigrant has just moved in with her family next door to Donnie. Josie is charismatic and worldly, a wonderful mystery to be solved, and Donnie is immediately captivated by her spiritedness.

Josie shows Donnie how exciting the world can be, whether they're flying kites in the park or having moonlit tete-a-tetes on the roof. They soon become inseparable, living in their own bubble of existence. But one day, they come home to find a Lincoln Continental parked in Josie's driveway. Donnie discovers that Josie has a secret, but can she trust him enough to reveal it? Donnie must protect Josie, even if it destroys his family's good name-and his life.

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