[NOTE: This blog has been updated as of 1/26/25]
As the year draws to a close, I am honored by the many accolades and “Best of” lists my latest YA narrative nonfiction book RISING FROM THE ASHES: LOS ANGELES, 1992. EDWARD JAE SONG LEE, LATASHA HARLINS, RODNEY KING, AND A CITY ON FIRE (Norton Young Readers/W.W. Norton & Co., 2024) has received.
My book is a finalist for the 2025 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award. It’s a privilege to be included amongst such esteemed fellow nominees: “A Greater Goal: The Epic Battle for Equal Pay in Women’s Soccer—and Beyond,” by Elizabeth Rusch (Greenwillow Books), “Homebody” by Theo Parish (HarperAlley), “Shackled: A Tale of Wronged Kids, Rogue Judges, and a Town that Looked Away” by Candy J Cooper (Calkins Creek), and “The Unboxing of a Black Girl” by Angela Shanté (Page Street Publishing). The winner will be announced January 27, 2025. For more information on the finalists: https://www.ala.org/news/2024/12/yalsa-announces-2025-excellence-nonfiction-young-adults-award-finalists
JANUARY 27, 2025: UPDATED TO ADD: My book was selected as the WINNER for the 2025 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award. Press release here: https://www.ala.org/news/2025/01/rising-ashes-los-angeles-1992-edward-jae-song-lee-latasha-harlins-rodney-king-and-city
Please join Yoo and finalists Rusch, Cooper, Parish and Shanté for a special virtual “YALSA Nonfiction Award Finalists Panel in Conversation with School Library Journal (SLJ)” at 2 PM ET/11 AM PT. You can register for free here: https://www.slj.com/event/yalsa-nonfiction-award-finalists-in-conversation-with-slj
FEBRUARY 3, 2025: UPDATED TO ADD: The Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) has selected RISING FROM THE ASHES as a finalist for the Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction Older Readers. I’m honored to be amongst the company of these authors whose books I also greatly admire: Spirit Sleuths: How Magicians and Detectives Exposed the Ghost Hoaxes by Gail Jarrow (Calkins Creek); The Gender Binary is a Big Lie: Infinite Identities Around the World by Lee Wind (Zest Books); Uprooted: A Memoir About What Happens When Your Family Moves Back by Ruth Chan (Roaring Brook Press); and Virus Hunters: How Science Protects People When Outbreaks and Pandemics Strike by Amy Cherrix (HarperCollins). The Winner and Honor book for each category will be announced live via Zoom at the Golden Kite Award Ceremony on February 21 at 4pm PST. For more information, go here: https://www.scbwi.org/celebrate-excellence-in-children-s-literature-the-golden-kite-award-finalists
RISING FROM THE ASHES has also been selected so far as a “Best Books of 2024” by Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Horn Book, School Library Journal, Chicago Public Library, Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature and as a “Blue Ribbon” book by the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books.
For state reading lists, RISING FROM THE ASHES has been selected as one of the “Best New Books for Missouri Students, 2024, High School” by the Reading Circle Committee of the Missouri State Teachers Association (MSTA).
It has also received five starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Horn Book, School Library Journal, and the Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books, and is a 2024 Junior Library Guild Gold Standard.
I was also honored to be included in this School Library Journal (SLJ) article about Printz award “underdogs”! “Paula Yoo’s Rising From the Ashes focuses on the riotous aftermath of the Rodney King verdict which left a trail of death and destruction in its wake. Focusing on three individuals and their families, yet layering in other voices and additional context, Yoo delivers a nuanced treatment of historically marginalized communities fighting for a piece of the American Dream. Excluding memoirs, the Printz has only recognized five nonfiction books, but two of them have come in the past three years—Revolution In Our Time (2022) and Queer Ducks (2023)—so perhaps the tide is turning. This book delivers the same powerful thematic examination of the human condition that we have come to expect from the previous nonfiction winners.” Link here: https://www.slj.com/story/will-underdog-title-win-2025-award-pondering-printz
You can also read an essay I wrote, “My Own Sa I Gu,” for the November/December 2024 issue of Horn Book Magazine here: https://www.hbook.com/story/the-writers-page-my-own-sa-i-gu
Much gratitude to my literary agent Tricia Lawrence (Erin Murphy Literary Agency), to my editor Simon Boughton, Kristin Allard and everyone at Norton Young Readers, and to Pulitzer photographer Hyungwon Kang and translator/interpreter Aerin Park.
It was an honor and privilege to interview the 100+ sources, including the families of Edward Jae Song Lee, Latasha Harlins, and Rodney King, who shared your stories of courage and resilience with me.