1. Common Sense Media: Ages 12 and up
*Language warning!
I would recommend this book for ages 12 and up. I read it aloud to 7th graders, but that’s the youngest I think it’s appropriate for as a class read aloud.
Common Sense Media: Ages 12 and up
School Library Journal: Grades 8 and up
Amazon: Age 12 and up, grade 7-9

2. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

3. Summary of Long Way Down
In Long Way Down, Will has known about The Rules for a long time. No one he knows invented them, they've just always existed: No Crying, No Snitching, Get Revenge. When his big brother Shawn is killed, Will knows what he has to do -- he has to follow The Rules, right? The 60-second trip down the elevator from his apartment to the killer is among the longest of his life. When his past offers a different perspective on The Rules, Will has to make a tough decision: Will he go through with it? (Common Sense Media)

5. The Sadness
is just so hard
to explain.
Imagine waking up
and someone,
a stranger,
got you strapped down,
got pliers shoved
into your mouth,
gripping a tooth
somewhere in the back,
one of the big
important ones,
and rips it out
Imagine the knocking
in your head,
the pressure pushing
through your ears,
the blood pooling.
But the worst part,
the absolute worst part,
is the constant slipping
of your tongue
into the new empty space
where you know
a tooth supposed to be
but ain’t no more.
(Page 6-7)

6. I’ve Never Been
in an earthquake
Don’t known if this was
even close to how they
are, but the ground
defi nitely felt like
it o pened up
and ate me.
(Page 13)

7. Then the Yellow Tape
that says DO NOT CROSS
gets put up, and there’s nothing
left to do but go home.
That tape lets people know
that this is a murder scene,
as if we ain’t already know that.
The crowd backs its way into
buildings and down blocks
until nothing is left but the tape.
Shawn was zipped into a bag
and rolled away, his blood added
to the pavement galaxy of
bubblegum stars. The tape
framed it like it was art. And the next
day, kids would play mummy with it.
(Page 28)

8. Extension
1. The narrator’s brother has just been killed. Knowing that, what is effective about the metaphor in “The Sadness?”
2. What is another metaphor you could use if writing your own poem titled, “The Sadness?”
3. What mood is the author trying to create in “I’ve Never Been?”
4. “his blood added / to the pavement galaxy of / bubblegum stars. The tape / framed it like it was art. And the next / day, kids would play mummy with it.” What conflicting images does the reader see here? What is their purpose?
5. Reviews of the book describe it by saying, “staccato verses mimic the painful, ping-pong like thoughts one feels after a traumatic event.” Find examples of this in the poems.