From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry

Ages 13 to 18, Grades 8 to 13

Winner of the 2021 Boston Globe Horn Book Award for NonfictionLonglisted for the 2021 National Book Award for Young People's LiteratureFinalist for the 2022 YALSA Award for Excellence in Young Adult NonfictionAn NPR Best Book of 2021A Washington Post Best Children's Book of 2021A Time Young Adult Best Book of 2021A Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book of 2021A Publishers Weekly Best Young Adult Book of 2021A School Library Journal Best Book of 2021A Horn Book Best Book of 2021A compelling account of the killing of Vincent Chin, the verdicts that took the Asian American community to the streets in protest, and the groundbreaking civil rights trial that followed.

America in 1982: Japanese car companies are on the rise and believed to be putting U.S. autoworkers out of their jobs. Anti–Asian American sentiment simmers, especially in Detroit. A bar fight turns fatal, leaving a Chinese American man, Vincent Chin, beaten to death at the hands of two white men, autoworker Ronald Ebens and his stepson, Michael Nitz.Paula Yoo has crafted a searing examination of the killing and the trial and verdicts that followed. When Ebens and Nitz pled guilty to manslaughter and received only a $3,000 fine and three years’ probation, the lenient sentence sparked outrage. The protests that followed led to a federal civil rights trial—the first involving a crime against an Asian American—and galvanized what came to be known as the Asian American movement.Extensively researched from court transcripts, contemporary news accounts, and in-person interviews with key participants, From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry is a suspenseful, nuanced, and authoritative portrait of a pivotal moment in civil rights history, and a man who became a symbol against hatred and racism.

About the Author

Paula Yoo is an award-winning children's book author, a prolific TV writer/producer, and a professional violinist. From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry is her debut YA nonfiction book. She lives in Los Angeles.