Long Way Down - by Jason Reynolds (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Adapted from Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, published by Atheneum in 2017'--Title page verso.

Book Synopsis

Five starred reviews!

Jason Reynolds's Newbery Honor, Printz Honor, and Coretta Scott King Honor-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling novel Long Way Down is now a gripping, galvanizing graphic novel, with haunting artwork by Danica Novgorodoff.

Will's older brother, Shawn, has been shot.
Dead.
Will feels a sadness so great, he can't explain it. But in his neighborhood, there are THE RULES:

No. 1: Crying.
Don't.
No matter what.

No. 2: Snitching
Don't.
No matter what.

No. 3: Revenge
Do.
No matter what.

But bullets miss. You can get the wrong guy. And there's always someone else who knows to follow the rules...

Review Quotes

*"A moving rendition that stands on its own."--Kirkus, starred review

*"Far more than just an illustration of the events of the novel, Novgorodoff's iteration powerfully cultivates the tone and mood of its source material, demonstrating just how effective and artful comics can be."--Booklist, starred review

*"Novgorodoff's watercolors, which bleed at the edges like pavement stains, match the text in mood and fluency, and by putting faces to characters, they tacitly untangle the web of revenge killings and mistaken identities foundational to the plot."--BCCB, starred review

*"Reynolds's words paint pictures of their own in this tragic yet poignant illustrated tale that offers no answers to the seemingly ­impossible choices some communities face."--School Library Journal, starred review

"Danica Novgorodoff has done a superb job of graphically capturing the gritty emotions of the original story--the anguish, the cyclical bloodshed, and the terror of the present situation."

Highly Recommended --School Library Connection "November-December 2020"

"In his YA novel Long Way Down, Jason Reynolds uses the painful past to reveal the difficulty between doing what you are taught is right and doing what is moral.

Danica Novgorodoff's ink-and-watercolor illustrations are a beautiful addition to Reynolds's lyrical text. A gorgeously illustrated reinterpretation of the novel."--Shelf Awareness for Readers "November 17, 2020"

"Reynolds has skillfully edited and rearranged his original verse novel to create room for Novgorodoff's impressionistic ink and watercolor illustrations to flourish, resulting in an adaptation that feels authentic to its new comics format."--Horn Book Magazine *STARRED* "January/February 2021"

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, a Coretta Scott King Author Award, 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, Lu, and Coach); Look Both Ways; Stuntboy, in the Meantime; Stuntboy, In-Between Time; Miles Morales Suspended; 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.

Danica Novgorodoff is an artist, writer, graphic designer, and horse wrangler who lives in Kentucky. Her books include Jason Reynolds's Long Way Down graphic novel. She was awarded a 2015 New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in literature and was named Sarabande Books's 2016 writer-in-residence. She has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony, Blue Mountain Center, VCCA, Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, and Willapa Bay AiR. Visit her online at DanicaNovgorodoff.com.