Another powerful Asian-focused nonfiction tale by Yoo who wrote one of my favorites- [book:From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement|53597797]. This one is focused on the Asian and Black side of the Los Angeles of 1992 in which the Watts uprising and then as the murders and beatings of individuals blew up relationships between police and the community, Asians and Blacks, shop owners and neighborhoods. Yoo presents a history that is little shared even for adults let alone for a YA audience as she does with her previous book and this book. Two thirds of the way through the book it does get bogged down in names and situations that drag the book through a slower pace than I would have liked but it's picked back up as it makes its way toward the end.

To know the story of Latasha Harlins in particular and more information regarding Rodney King and LA during this time was enlightening.

Thank you to Net Galley and W.W. Norton & Company for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This was an interesting account of Los Angeles in 1992 through the stories of Rodney King, Latasha Harlins and Edward Jae Song Lee. The author did a good job of interweaving these stories and how Black, Korean and Latino communities were affected negatively by police action and inaction, media's sensational coverage which heightened negative views of these communities and the heartbreaking stories that affected all these communities. It also brought to light the abusive behavior of the police and racism/prejudice whether conscious or unconscious pervaded the city at that time. The author ends the book with a bit of uplift checking back in with key people within the story as well as their families and what came from this terrible year in their lives, and the city's.

Rising From the Ashes is an in depth look at all the people and influences leading up to the beating of Rodney King. This is not the normal kind of book that I would have read but I found it to be very interesting and informative.

Do you know where you were when the L.A. Riots happened in 1992? If not, do you know about the L.A. Riots in 1992?

I was 6 years-old living in the Midwest when the L.A. Riots happened in 1992. I've learned a little bit about them in history classes, but the information is quickly talked about and we'd move on. I was looking forward to reading Rising from the Ashes by Paula Yoo to learn more about this time in U.S. history, thanks to a gifted copy from Netgalley and Norton Young Readers.

Yoo does a great job of making this time in history accessible to a young adult audience as well as adult readers. She sets the foundation of L.A.'s landscape along with the death of Latasha Harlins and the beating of Rodney (Glen) King to set the backdrop of what happened in L.A. the spring of 1992. These two events lead to the death of Edward Jae Song Lee during the riots. Yoo not only shows the devastation to the area, but shows how the community came together to help protect businesses and clean up the area following the riots. Yoo also shines light on Rodney King, Latasha Harlins, and Edward Jae Song Lee so readers know who they were as people and not just names that are quickly read past. We learn about the legacies that they've left behind and the people they were before everything happened.

I highly recommend this book if you're looking for more information about this time period and event in U.S. history.

I am obsessed with the LA riots of 1992. I have been since they happened as a kid. I love the idea of bringing this history to young people and think it is really well done. I question a bit how some information was presented without interpretation or reflection from the adult (thinking here about the testimonies of the officers who beat King). But over all very comprehensive and well researched and something I look forward to giving my kids when they are old enough to read.

I lived through this, but I was far too young to remember it. This was such a great summation of what happened in 1992 in Los Angeles with so many connections made to today. When I used to teach history, I always taught it as a spectrum of one event leading to another to another. History doesn’t happen in a vacuum. This book is an excellent example of how to teach a historic event without making it seem isolated in the grand timeline of things. I also loved the use of primary sources and images to make the reader feel like it’s happening today. Because in a lot of ways, it is still happening today. I would recommend reading this along with John Cho’s Troublemaker.

Rising From the Ashes is an in depth look at all the people and influences leading up to the beating of Rodney King. We then get a detailed account of the aftermath: the violence, the destruction, and the deaths. In this book, readers learn what they missed from abbreviated and over simplified news reports. Getting to read about each person and their personal lives makes this event even more profound.

A telling of a sadly common and tragic pattern. Time marches on, but little progress seems to be made. Still this is a good resource for anyone wanting to learn about Rodney King and the LA Riots.

I assume that formatting issues will be fixed before publication.

Yoo's book builds on her successful previous book on the birth of the Asian American rights movement. I'm happy to have a book that puts the LA riots into perspective for young people, so they can more deeply understand the complexity of the events surrounding it. Yoo does a great job exploring all sides of this story. Her ability to provide personal narratives alongside larger ones is empathetic history at its best.
The book reads like great fiction, and I think it will pull in readers who are looking for something nonfiction but don't want to feel trapped by something too academic.

Yoo encourages readers to consider the connections between LA and today, as well as the underlying currents of racism that stretch from LA to now (the book even discusses the Watts riot, which students understand even less today. Her discussion of it is top notch and really accessible for younger people). However, I never gained the sense that she came across as preachy; instead, she many times subtly gets readers to question the relevance of the story from thirty years ago.

In being so comprehensive, the book could benefit from a few storylines being condensed. While I think the pop culture and rap music is important to the context, it detracts from the book's larger narrative.

Overall, I think that students who are interested in this time period, who want to know about the origins and views of this event would benefit from this book. There's been a wealth of documentaries about this in the last few years, and I think the book could be used to continue someone's interest in it, providing a way to continue some syntopical reading.