Lockdown

Lockdown is the powerful tale of fourteen-year-old Reese Anderson, who has spent 22 months in a tiny cell at a “progress center.” Living in fear and isolation, Reese begins looking within himself to find a way out of the prison system.

Acclaimed author Walter Dean Myers offers an honest story about finding a way to make it without getting lost in the shuffle. Told with compassion and truth, Lockdown is also a compelling first-person read that "could resonate with teens on a dangerous path."*

When I first got to Progress, it freaked me out to be locked in a room and unable to get out. But after a while, when you got to thinking about it, you knew nobody could get in, either.

It seems as if the only progress that's going on at Progress juvenile facility is moving from juvy jail to real jail. Reese wants out early, but is he supposed to just sit back and let his friend Toon get jumped? Then Reese gets a second chance when he's picked for the work program at a senior citizens' home. He doesn't mean to keep messing up, but it's not so easy, at Progress or in life. One of the residents, Mr. Hooft, gives him a particularly hard time. If he can convince Mr. Hooft that he's a decent person, not a criminal, maybe he'll be able to convince himself.

Walter Dean Myers was a New York Times bestselling author, Printz Award winner, five-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, two-time Newbery Honor recipient, and the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. Maria Russo, writing in the New York Times, called Myers "one of the greats and a champion of diversity in children's books well before the cause got mainstream attention."

*Kirkus

But inside Progress, survival has its own rules. Can Reese find his own path without losing himself completely?

• Life in Juvenile Detention: An unflinching, first-person look at the daily realities of life inside a facility for troubled youth, where every choice has consequences.
• An Unlikely Friendship: At his work-release job, Reese meets Mr. Hooft, a difficult elderly resident with a harrowing past of his own, forcing both to confront their prejudices.
• High-Stakes Moral Choices: When his friend Toon is targeted by a prison gang, Reese must decide between protecting him and jeopardizing his own chance at an early release.
• A Powerful Coming-of-Age Story: A gripping and honest novel about identity and survival from legendary author and National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, Walter Dean Myers.