Long Way Down

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.

About the Author

Jason Reynolds is a critically acclaimed American writer and poet and winner of the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers.

From Jason: 'Here's what I know: I know there are a lot - A LOT - of young people who hate reading. I know that many of these book haters are boys. I know that many of these book-hating boys, don't actually hate books, they hate boredom. So here's what I plan to do: NOT WRITE BORING BOOKS.'

This is the first of his books to be published in the UK.

About the Illustrator

Chris Priestley lives, writes, draws and paints in Cambridge. He has lived in England, Wales and Gibraltar. He left home in 1976 to go to art college in Manchester. He was there for four years before heading off to London to seek his fortune as an illustrator. He worked mainly for newspapers and magazines as an editorial illustrator, caricaturist and political cartoonist. He has always written stories, but he was an illustrator for twenty years before his first book was published. He has had at least one book published every year since and continues to illustrate as well.