YA Pick: Long Way Down

Long Way Down
by Jason Reynolds
Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/Atheneum Books for Young Readers
2017
320 pages
ISBN: 9781481438254

Gripping and mesmerizing, Long Way Down will INVOLVE readers. Will (William) Holloman recounts the night of his brother's murder and how he will exact revenge on the killer because that's how his neighborhood and his life works. Everyone in his neighborhood knows the rules.

Will knows who shot his brother and knows his brother has a gun. Will grabs that gun and decides to take matters into his own hands. He steps into the elevator to go down to the street. On each floor, Will is met by someone from his past. Each person is along for the ride and each person has been affected by gun violence. Will must listen to each one's powerful story and decide what it means for him.

Told in verse, this is one story that will tug at hearts and make heads hurt. The poetry is sometimes written as a "concrete" poem where the poem is placed on the page to create the effect of an earthquake or one word on a white page. Shawn. Will's dead brother's name. Or one word repeated in the shape of a question mark. The word "right?" These pages are the strongest and most beautiful causing the reader to take a moment to think and admire the art of true poetry and storytelling.

Cover art is thoughtful and effective as the reflection of a boy is shown on the elevator door along with the buttons for each floor.The reader is left wondering what path Will will take, and maybe that's the point of the character's name: Will.

Jason Reynolds is writing some of the most powerful books on the market--the books that must be talked about and it's refreshing. For those kids who like Reynolds, felt they didn't see characters like themselves in books, he is writing their stories. Long Way Down will be a strong contender in prize categories for next year. I expect it to take top state honors and likely be a National Book Award Finalist.

Highly, highly recommended for grade 9 and up.  A must have for all collections. I would place copies in poetry and also in YA Fiction to insure it is read by all its fans.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received the ARC from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

I Nearly MIssed This One! YA Pick: Trouble Is a Friend of Mine

Trouble Is a Friend of Mine
by Stephanie Tromly
Kathy Dawson Books
2015
334 pages
ISBN: 9780525428404

Watch a teen review

Praise

Praise for Trouble Is a Friend of Mine:
“In what reads like a combination of Veronica Mars and The Breakfast Club, debut author Tromly creates a screwball mystery with powerful crossover appeal.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“This is one of those rare books that promises something unique and actually delivers beyond expectation. At least one copy belongs in every young adult collection—maybe even two or three. Once the word gets out, this book will fly off the shelves.”—VOYA, starred review

“Fast-talking, suit-wearing Digby is an exasperating teenage Sherlock—sharply observant, impatient with social niceties, and unafraid of authority figures….Fans of Veronica Mars and Elementary will find much to like here…Zoe’s sarcastic first-person narration is fresh and funny…an offbeat and entertaining caper.”—Kirkus

“With snappy prose and wry humor alongside the gritty crime, this nod to noir moves as fast as Digby talks… An engrossing and satisfying read…[that] encourages readers to dig between the lines and see truths that even Zoe and Digby, in all their sardonic observations, can’t quite spell out.”—BCCB, starred review

“A fast-paced story….Readers will find a sharply drawn character in the irrepressible Zoe, who’s as dubious about Digby’s methods as she is curious about whether or not she can live up to his daredevilry.”—SLJ

“With acerbic banter and a healthy dose of high-school high jinks, screenwriter Tromly weaves together traditional elements of teen stories to create a Breakfast Club for a new century.”—Booklist

My Review:


Trouble Is a Friend of Mine was marketed as a cross between Veronica Mars, Sherlock and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," so I was intrigued right away and had high hopes for a great read. I wasn't disappointed and readers won't be either!


Philip Digby is that weirdly cool nerdy kid who everyone knows but isn't exactly close friends with probably because they couldn't keep up with his intellect. They admire his aplomb, his ability to finesse a situation, his benign smile, his ability to tell tall tales and get away with them, and his audacity to fight authority and win before authority  even knows they were in a fight.Whip smart, ever so random in his observances and utterances, Sherlock Holmes smart, utterly devilish,  charming, and dazzling in his brilliance, Digby befriends Zoe. Actually befriends is not the right word. He wiles his way into her life and Zoe, a little bored and a lot friendless, is confused as to why she's suddenly Digby's sidekick and a willing if confused  Dr. Watson to his witty and biting Sherlock Holmes. A cute football playing jock named Henry joins the two and soon the  trio are searching for a missing girl.  Eight years  earlier, Digby's younger sister vanished, and he's hoping if he finds what happened in the recent disappearance, he can find his sister.


I can't say enough about Digby;  he is an enchanting fellow. He is masterful at controlling the situation and keeping things on a strictly need to know basis. He has a plan to bust a drug ring and find out where the missing girl or girls are. Digby is he master of the understatement and a genius at linguistics. He takes jibs at Zoe, aka Princeton, teasing her for her clothing choices, her lack of friends, her boring life, and her wanting to attend an expensive private school. Readers later learn that Digby's home life is...well...strange!

As Zoe crushes on cute Henry, who has a mean girl cheerleader girlfriend, she realizes her feelings for Digby are more than friendship. Zoe has her share of funny lines. When she sees Henry's toned stomach, she says, "Who knew a sixteen-year-old boy who wasn't a werewolf fighting sparkly vampires could have a six-pack of abs?"

Trouble Is a Friend of Mine has a great trio of characters and lead "actors"  Digby and Zoe are sheer comic gold. After finding the bad guys, not alerting the cops, getting taken hostage, being thrown into a cellar, being held at gunpoint, finding tons of explosives and Zoe coming face to face with her biggest fear: her mother's new sleepover boyfriend, Zoe and Digby make a plan to free themselves from a car trunk. When bad guy Ezekiel opens the trunk, Zoe will stab him with an epi-pen and Digby will take the gun. While that plan sounds like it will work, what really happens is: the trunk opens, Zoe stabs the bad guy, the bad guy screams, Zoe screams, Digby screams and the trunk is slammed shut again. Zoe tells Digby that he was supposed to get the gun, but Digby says that Zoe grossed him out and he froze. Zoe hit Ezekiel directly in the eyeball with the epi-pen. Laugh out loud funny!

More surprises at the end will leave readers speechless but wanting more of Digby and Zoe.  It's great news that this book is only book one of a trilogy. Readers will have to wait until November for book 2, Trouble Makes a Comeback. What are you waiting for? Grab a copy of Trouble Is a Friend of Mine.

Highly, highly recommended grade 7-up. Some adult situations: Zoe's dad cheated on her mother and leaves her for a much younger woman, no profanity, no sex, a "hint" of romance.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Sci Fi Pick: Burn Out

Burn Out
by Kristi Helvig
Egmont
2014
253 pages
ISBN: 9781606844793

Lone survivor Tora Reynolds lives in a bunker designed by her scientist/inventor father. Having lost her entire family, Tora has never felt more alone. The last human she saw was Markus, a gun runner and general no-goodnik who promised to come back for her if he found a habitable planet. Earth has become a giant desert with little water or oxygen. Tora hopes for someone to post a comment to her GlobalNet post but she waits in vain to see if anyone else is alive out there.

Markus comes back, but the problem is that he is not alone. He brought some well-armed soldiers to storm Tora's bunker and take her father's weapons by force. They are not the only enemy. The Consulate sends its forces to take the guns for themselves. This makes Markus's team and Tora now one against the bigger brute--the government or what's left of it.

Kale, James, Britta, Markus and Tora go on a space chase trying to outrun the Consulate's ships and get their weapons safely to Caelia. Tora knows that Kale is the enemy but should she trust Markus who says he's "got her back?" And who is James and what is his angle? He seems like a good guy and Tora secretly crushes on him, but what is he doing as Kale's second in command? What does the Consulate hope to accomplice with Tora's guns?

Shifting loyalties and cloak and dagger rat and mouse games keep the reader guessing until the very end. The plot races along with just the right amount of shoot 'em up action. Tora will appeal to both girls and boys; her tenacity and toughness speak volumes of her character.

Recommended for any fan of sci-fi and space travel books. Grade 9-up. Profanity, violence.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)

Now in Paperback: Give a Boy a Gun

Give a Boy a Gun
by Todd Strasser
Simon & Schuster
2012 (new paperback edition)
224 pages

Riveting, terrifying, and tragically true, the statistics used in this haunting new ya novel should scare everyone living in America. Every day, thousands of students are bullied in our schools, and every day, some kid might snap. What happens when enough is finally enough? And what can be done to prevent it?

Ask the kids who were at Columbine. Ask the kids who attend Chardon High School in Ohio where on February 27, 2012, a student wounded five other students, three of whom later died. These are not isolated examples. Strasser includes facts and statistics from various sources as footnotes to the story of Ryan, Brendon, and Gary, three friends who are not popular or athletes at their high school. They are not the "in" crowd, and they dread coming to school every day.

This fact comes from Rolling Stone, 6/10/99: "In 1996, handguns alone killed 15 people in Japan, 30 in Great Britain, 106 in Canada, and 9,390 in the United States." It illustates the growing gun problem in America. Our teens know how easy it is to obtain a weapon. According to one statistic, 12% of American students have seen another student with a gun at school.


The three boys are constantly bullied and harrassed on a daily basis. Teachers do nothing to stop it other than say to the popular kids, "Hey, guys, cut it out." There is no back-up and no consequences. Gary chooses to fight back. Gary grows increasingly darker and practices with video shooting games, even buying a gun from another student. It is his descent into vile hatred and blind rage that carries the story.

Readers know that nothing but tragedy can come from Gary's actions, yet he is like a wounded animal himself. The daily barrage of tiny abuses multiply and grow exponentially in his mind.

This is not a feel-good story. It's a story that one hopes will make people pay attention to the facts that weaker people get bullied and they can only take so much.

Recommmeded for teens who like realistic fiction with an edge. Grades 9-up. Language, violence, guns.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.