Long Way Down
by Jason Reynolds
Verse novel · ages 10–14 · 770L (~4th grade) · 2018
Why we'd hand it over
A devastating, urgent verse novel about a 15-year-old choosing whether to shoot someone for his brother's death — told entirely in an elevator ride. Structurally brilliant and emotionally unflinching; this is serious literature that respects teen readers' capacity to grapple with real moral weight.