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Book Summary and Reviews of Riot by Walter Dean Myers

Riot by Walter Dean Myers

Riot

by Walter Dean Myers

  • Critics' Consensus (5):
  • Readers' Rating (3):
  • Published:
  • Sep 2009, 192 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

As the Civil War rages, another battle breaks out behind the lines.

During a long hot July in 1863, the worst race riots the United States has ever seen erupt in New York City. Earlier that year, desperate for more Union soldiers, President Abraham Lincoln instituted a draft – a draft that would allow the wealthy to escape serving in the army by paying a $300 waiver, more than a year's income for the recent immigrant Irish. And on July 11, as the first drawing takes place in Lower Manhattan, the city of New York explodes in rage and fire. Stores are looted; buildings, including the Colored Foundling Home, are burned down; and black Americans are attacked, beaten, and murdered. The police cannot hold out against the rioters, and finally, battle-hardened soldiers are ordered back from the fields of Gettysburg to put down the insurrection, which they do–brutally.

Fifteen-year-old Claire, the beloved daughter of a black father and Irish mother, finds herself torn between the two warring sides. Faced with the breakdown of the city – the home – she has loved, Claire must discover the strength and resilience to address the new world in which she finds herself, and to begin the hard journey of remaking herself and her identity.

Addressing such issues as race, bigotry, and class head-on, Walter Dean Myers has written another stirring and exciting novel that will shake up assumptions, and lift the spirit.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Written in screenplay format like his Printz Award–winning Monster....Readers should find this story moving—a direct result of Myers's empathetic portrayal of those on both sides. Ages 12+." - Publishers Weekly

"Once again, this master storyteller has delivered." - School Library Journal

"Another innovative work by an author constantly stretching the boundaries of what fiction can be... Ages 11+." - Kirkus Reviews

This information about Riot was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Dum

Bad book
Just a girl walking around in New York during a time where there are riots, nothing very interesting happens and there is no development.

Jimmy T.

Riot
It was boring, and the way that it is written like a script makes it more unenjoyable. I had to reread the book just to give my friend a summary of the book...

Savannah :)

Bleck!
This book was incredibly boring. The screenplay format could be quite confusing at times and the main points of the story that were supposed to be dramatic weren't very dramatic. I learned of something I didn't know about, but it might have made more sense for me to read out of a textbook than these blah novel. I did enjoy the pictures though, it was my favorite part... funny pictures are more interesting than words in this case!

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Author Information

Walter Dean Myers Author Biography

Other books by Walter Dean Myers at BookBrowse

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