Long Way Down (The Graphic Novel): Winner, Kate Greenaway Award
As seen:
By Jason Reynolds and Danica Novgorodoff
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The award-winning, bestselling verse novel is now a stunning graphic novel with illustrations by Danica Novgorodoff.
SHORTLISTED for the CILIP Carnegie Medal
WINNER of the Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal and UKLA
‘A masterpiece from beginning to end.’ Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give
AND THEN THERE WERE SHOTS
Everybody
ran,
ducked,
hid, tucked
themselves tight.
Pressed our lips to the
pavement and prayed
the boom, followed by
the buzz of a bullet,
didn’t meet us.
After Will’s brother is shot in a gang crime, he knows the next steps. Don’t cry. Don’t snitch. Get revenge. So he gets in the lift with Shawn’s gun, determined to follow The Rules. Only when the lift door opens, Buck walks in, Will’s friend who died years ago. And Dani, who was shot years before that. As more people from his past arrive, Will has to ask himself if he really knows what he’s doing.
This haunting, lyrical, powerful verse novel will blow you away.
‘A heartrending and convincing blank verse narrative.’ Sunday Times, BOOKS OF THE YEAR
‘Astonishing.’ Kirkus Reviews
‘A tour de force.’ Publishers Weekly
‘Will attract teenagers who don’t consider themselves ‘readers’.’ The Inis Reading Guide
TweetReviews
Have read both this and the novel and verse version - both are abosultely superb.
Will boards the elevator, gun tucked into his trousers, out to avenge the death of his brother. At each floor on the way down ghosts of those who make up the back story to the killing get in and join him.
This is an amazing story highlighting the impact of gang and gun crime. It should be core reading for so many - depending on the individual any time from later primary onwards.
