An instant New York Times bestselller! An Indiebound bestseller! An Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature Honor Book! Troublemaker follows the events of the LA Riots through the eyes of 12-year-old Jordan as he navigates school and family. This book will highlight the unique Korean American perspective. 12-year-old Jordan feels like he can't live up to the example his older sister set, or his parent's expectations. When he returns home from school one day hoping to hide his suspension, Los Angeles has reached a turning point. In the wake of the acquittal of the police officers filmed beating Rodney King, as well as the shooting of a young black teen, Latasha Harlins by a Korean store owner, the country is at the precipice of confronting its racist past and present. As tensions escalate, Jordan's father leaves to check on the family store, spurring Jordan and his friends to embark on a dangerous journey to come to his aide, and come to terms with the racism within and affecting their community.
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I really enjoyed this book. Tackling a lot of complicated issues I thought it could be preachy, but John Cho gives the story and his characters such heart, that although there is a lot of food for thought and some lessons along the way, it was anything but preachy. It is important, however, to have stories like this. Especially for young adults. It is an engaging story, but also truthful in its portrayal of those tumultuous teenage years of raw emotion and the complicated dynamics of family and realizing your parents are human too. That's the center if the story, but then it's surrounded by the much bigger event of the LA riots of the early 90's and the parallel to today is uncanny and certainly makes you question if/how things will ever change. There is no magic answer here, instead John Cho ends with a positive and hopeful note on a more personal level that I believe is a great message in and of itself. I think it would be a great book for discussion with a young adult, but it also made me ponder a lot on it too. I really liked the characters and I think that was what really pulled me into the story, as well as the family dynamics. Overall a really excellent book, well worth the read.
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