Time To Read

Real-life Issues

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Seven Days by Eve Ainsworth

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. Written in verse, Long Way Down is hard hitting but it needs to be. Dealing with knife crime it doesn’t paint a happy picture; the story is gritty and realistic.

Life is hard for Jess. School should be a safe place but at the moment it's everything Jess dreads, and it's made even more difficult by the threatening presence of Kez. Kez lives in a nicer part of town but her life isn't any sweeter. The only place she finds comfort is knowing she is better off than Jess - or so she thinks. Told from the point of view of the bullied and the bully, this is a taut, powerful story of two girls locked in battle with each other and themselves, spiralling towards a shocking conclusion.

The Million Pieces of Neena Gill by Emma Smith-Barton Neena's always been a good girl - great grades, parent approved friends and absolutely no boyfriends. But ever since her brother Akash left her, she's been slowly falling apart - and uncovering a new version of herself who is freer, but altogether more dangerous. As her wild behaviour spirals more and more out of control, Neena's grip on her sanity begins to weaken too. This novel thoughtfully and sensitively portrays a teenage experience of psychosis, a mental illness rarely written about.