How this debut YA novel about the ’92 LA riots suddenly feels so timely

When Christina Hammonds Reed delivered the final draft of “The Black Kids,” it was December 2019 and her novel about a Black teenager coming of age during the 1992 Los Angeles riots felt rooted in that time and place.
Half a year later, as “The Black Kids” arrives on Tuesday, Aug. 4, it feels prescient in its portrayal not only of the crisis of police violence against Black Americans but also how we understand it against the backdrop of history.
“It’s very, ve