Jason Reynolds

And I had kind of thought about it a little bit with this one.

And then I was listening to Jason Reynolds.

He actually does the audiobook for Long Way Down.

And I had read Long Way Down as a book book.

Joining her is Danika Novgorodov, an award-winning artist, writer, and New York Times best-selling illustrator.

Her work includes the graphic novel adaptation of Jason Reynolds' Long Way Down, which earned her the prestigious Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal for Illustration.

Now Mira and Danica have combined their talents in To A Better World Is Possible, Global Youth Confront the Climate Crisis, which is a new non-fictional graphic novel for teen readers that follows four young climate activists from around the world.

Through my E-Train Talks Earth initiative, I visit classrooms, share eco-friendly books about the environment, and talk with kids about simple ways we can care for our planet and take action on climate change.

How do you decide what a story should look and feel like, and what influence the art and page design for a better world is possible?

Yeah, I mean, I think Long Way Down and A Better World Is Possible are such completely different books.

Long Way Down was based on a book by Jason Reynolds that was a novel in verse.

So it's really very poetic.

Counting by Sevens by Holly Goldberg Sloan.

My last one is called When I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds.

And Jason Reynolds wrote one of my absolute favorite books called Long Way Down.

He writes books for middle grade and young adults that feature Black, mainly urban, characters.

So I was excited to read this one.

So keep that in mind for younger readers.

I don't know that I would necessarily let like fifth graders read it, but it's a really excellent book.

Another excellent book by Jason Reynolds.

And he's staying.

Shout-out to Jason Reynolds in New Jersey, Robert in Berlin, loving the sound of Sheffield tonight, Sydney in Portsmouth, Boris in Serbia, Neil and Bailey in West Yorkshire listening tonight, Tim in New York City, Cuzz in Birmingham, who shaved his head to the sounds of Screamer Penger, and Rich in Denver.

Meanwhile, we continue from Sheffield University here on a massive night for the final night of our tour for BBC Introducing...

Big return.

And I think The Black Flamingo was obviously the way in for me.

But that was after reading, you know, verse novels by Sarah Crossan and Elizabeth Acevedo and Kwame Alexander and Jason Reynolds, just a few of the verse novelists that kind of inspired me to enter this form because I think it's a really great form for telling stories.

It's really easy to read and follow.

It leaves a lot to the reader's imagination and it gets straight to the heart of the action and the emotion of the protagonist.

And then it also opens and closes with Stephen Colbert, which I thought was really interesting.

And there are some, like Jason Reynolds makes an appearance.

It's really good.

I highly recommend it.

we do

yeah yeah and it's it's sort of I I'm not sure where I am if I'm not running um but I but also I I got some advice from like previous laureates but also um the wonderful Jason Reynolds who was the uh American laureate the

UK the US yeah

their ambassador for literature I said what advice because he was just coming to the end of his tenure when I was starting mine and he said oh uh just um burnout was what's his advice thanks jason yeah and i was like and that really sort of spoke to me and like yeah with the caveat of like of course look after yourself yeah but yeah i wanted to i didn't want to i wanted to leave everything on the field you know i wanted to do as much as i can whilst being sensible and and looking after myself but of course you get You say you plan lots of projects, but then lots of requests come in and you don't say no to that.

Okay.

And also "Long Way Down" by, um, by Jason Reynolds is a really good book.

Adding that one to the list too.

Yeah.