Dreams to Ashes: The 1871 Los Angeles Chinatown Massacre

Decades before the events traced in this narrative nonfiction work that’s focused on the massacre of 18 Chinese men in 1871 Los Angeles, Blackburne writes, difficulties in China prompted thousands of young men to seek gold in California. When it proved elusive, “these travelers chased their fortune in other ways, as doctors and launderers, cooks and gangsters. Vegetable peddlers and houseboys.// As immigrants. Humans.” Contextualizing lines introduce Los Angeles and, briefly, three men who lived there in the 1860s, during a time when physical violence toward Chinese people increased. A conflict that escalated in 1871 resulted in the deaths of 18 Chinese men and the destruction of Chinese businesses by a violent mob. Fire-oriented metaphors that hint at the coming conflagration describe growing tensions, while Xu’s thick-lined ink and digital media illustrations incorporate images of fire, smoke, and sparks. A historical note and bibliography conclude. Ages 7–11. (Mar.)