I though this was a super engaging read. It also talked about a time period and experiecne that i never heard about it before. It also deals with typical middle school issues like family drama and friendship drama but it takes place in the backdrop of the rodney king riots and the experiecne of being korean american. It also has elements that deal with gun violence and other harder topics. It was super fast pace read!!! But i really enjoyed it! ( )

I though this was a super engaging read. It also talked about a time period and experiecne that i never heard about it before. It also deals with typical middle school issues like family drama and friendship drama but it takes place in the backdrop of the rodney king riots and the experiecne of being korean american. It also has elements that deal with gun violence and other harder topics. It was super fast pace read!!! But i really enjoyed it! ( )

Summary: The first half of the book is fairly dull reading for an adult. The second half is more meaningful. For kids, it is best read with adult supervision to discuss the worthy, though weighty, subject matters.

“Troublemaker” is a middle-grades novel, written by John Cho, the actor. I’m not going to lie; I read it because he (with Sarah Suk) wrote it. I figured it’s only fair that I call myself out on it.

The time is the first day of the 1992 Los Angeles uprising, ignited by the Rodney King killers’ (policemen) verdict. The protesters especially targeted Korean owned businesses because 15-year-old Latasha Harlins was shot and killed by a Korean shopkeeper due to a mistaken belief that Harlins had stolen a bottle of orange juice. It was a terrible time in history that unfortunately repeats itself. 12-year-old Jordan Park is the narrator and key character. After being called the troublemaker of the family (the book goes deeper into this ‘label’), Jordan decides he needs to do something right. On this faithful night of pending riots, Appa (father) had left to board-up the family store. Jordan snuck out of the house with one goal in mind – to bring Appa his (unloaded) gun, so Appa can protect himself and his store.

The plot, writing style, and language is clear and simple for its target audience. Dare I say the premise of carrying a gun through LA is naïve, but what do I know about the mind of a 12-year-old boy? During this journey, the complexity of Jordan’s feelings reveals itself via memories of recent events. Compared to his “perfect” sister, he is the opposite of model-minority (the book also goes deeper on this). Umma and Appa are the classic immigrant parents, with all their hopes and dreams upon their children; queue the generational drama. Whatever struggles Jordan (and his sister) may suffer, they are exemplified by the weight of expectations. The first half lays the foundations of the story, while the second half, the much better half, addresses the depth of the motivations.

When writing this book, Cho struggled with whether to include a gun in a children’s book. Needless to say, violence, death, and racism are weighty, mature subjects. Then Cho thought about his own kids, who at 7 and 12 had been through active shooter drills at school. Cho decided that as an author and a parent to his children who have seen anti-Asian graffiti on their street – that “sanitizing the truth too much” would be “a disservice, an abdication of our responsibility to prepare them for independence.” This mindset is important to note when reading this book.

Lastly, I recently read Jamie Ford (author of ‘Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet’) commented there are infinite historical fictions yet to be written. I realized then this book fits this bill. Walking through the bustling Koreatown in LA today, one wouldn’t think much about the riots. That history is nonetheless indelible. Someone needs to tell this history to the kiddos, and Cho chose to cover it, motivated by the Asian hate messages throughout and after the pandemic. Good for him!

Quotes:
On Riots:
“…Even in this state, I can’t help but think of what Mr. Gary said. How the uprisings of tonight are from years of unheard anger, how people are setting the city on fire not because they love to see it burn but because they’re in pain. And I know it’s not at all the same, what I’m going through now, but I think I get it more than I did before. The feeling of being so mad you can’t help yourself…”

On Generational Gaps/Trauma:
“…they already looked so tired, I didn’t want to add any more worry onto their shoulders. That whenever I did try to sit down to study, all I could see was their stressed faces, full of things they wouldn’t tell me about.
Don’t worry, Umma would say, trying to protect me from their world where there wasn’t enough money.
Don’t worry, I would say back, trying to protect them from my world where there wasn’t enough focus.
Geokjeonghajima. Back and forth, just like that, protecting each other from our worlds until we living on two totally different planets.”

On Guns – if only more people understand this:
“Protection. This whole time, that’s how I was thinking of the gun. As a shield. But a gun isn’t a shield. A gun is a gun. It’s meant to kill people.”

On Expectations:
“My dad named me Jordan, after the river. I never thought I could live up to that name. The expectation of peace and freedom on the other side. The chance to be better.
I still don’t know if I’ll ever really be able to live up to it, but here’s the thing about rivers. They never stop running. Toward the ocean, toward something bigger than themselves.
Maybe in that way, we’re all a bit like rivers.” ( )

Korean-American Jordan lives with his Appa and Umma, his grandfather, and his older sister Sarah. Lately, Jordan is struggling: he's had a fight with his dad, is trying to keep his distance from former best friend Mike (who his dad thinks is a bad influence), and has just been suspended from school for cheating. But things are about to get worse: the Rodney King verdict was just announced, and L.A. is about to explode. Jordan's Appa goes to their liquor store to board it up, but doesn't call to let the family know he's safe, like he promised - so Jordan decides to prove he can think of someone other than himself and bring the gun Appa has hidden to him for protection. This well-intentioned, hare-brained scheme gets him into even worse trouble, but finally leads to honest conversations with both his father, his sister, and Mike.

Quotes

I'll never forgive myself if that's the last conversation we have. (33)

Geokjeonghajima [don't worry]. Back and forth, just like that, protecting each other from our worlds until we were living on two totally different planets. (144)

Nobody's just one thing. (160)

I've been running away from a lot of people tonight....All people who were trying to help me in their own way. (182)

It seems way too simple. To say sorry when you're sorry. To say you're hurt when you're hurt. To say something's not right when it's not right. But it's one of the hardest things in the world. (197) ( )

It is the first night of rioting in south central Los Angeles after the Rodney King beating verdict has been announced. Jordan's parents own a liquor store in Koreatown and his father has gone out to look after the shop. Over the period of the evening, Jordan and his friends head out into the area despite a declared state of emergency. Jordan wants to redeem his troubled relationship with his father by bringing him the gun from home and helping protect the store. In this suspenseful, well-paced novel, Jordan gains new insights on racism, his Korean community, and humanity. ( )