How It Went Down

This was a definite pageturner and it was sickeningly realistic. It's a story we've seen play out in the news WAY too many times–young black man killed by a white man who isn't held accountable for it. I thought the multiple narrators worked very well for this kind of story, when there are so many conflicting stories going around, and especially after the traumatic event people become less sure of what they saw.

I'd say it's a little too intense (in terms of language especially) for me to booktalk to junior high kids but I think it would be a great one to use in high school classrooms or just to recommend to teens looking for realistic fiction, or who are trying to make sense of how screwed up everything is right now.