There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in The Other America

There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in The Other America

By: Alex Kotlowitz  

Buy it now at Amazon.com!

Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Publisher: Anchor

Release Date: 1992-01-05

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Book Review - An email I read initially brought my attention to this book and I thought I would try it. The title initially grapped at me; 'There Are No Children Here'
Growing up in a small rural community and currently living in a comfortable suburb is far from what these children grew up in. Knowing this is reality for many children just saddens my heart and for whatever reason, many choose to ignore or believe their life situations truly exist.
I wanted to scream; this is not fair! No one should be treated the way they were. God put us on this earth as his companions; each equal in his sight!
It must hurt him greatly how we sometimes treat each other.
A true eye-opener and recommended book for all.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
One of the best nonfictions books ever written - After recently watching all five seasons of The Wire,The Wire: The Complete Series I have come to a new appreciation for how a story can be told on television, how provoking, thoughtful, and complex a TV show can be, while still staying true to good drama.

There Are No Children raises the nonfiction narrative to the same heights as The Wire does television drama. Alex Kotlowitz tells a great story, about two young boys navigating a world of poverty and violence, and just trying to get out alive. He does so without sentimentality--and the difficulties these boys face are so obvious, any hand-wringing would sap the strength of the narrative--and by telling their stories, teaches us about an entire world.

The day to day life of his two young subjects, Pharoah and Lafeyette, is fraught with danger not only from bullets and drugs, but also from simple tasks such as cleaning themselves when their bathtub produces only scalding hot water. To write about their lives in the detail that Kotlowitz did, he needed to spend a vast amount of time with them and their family, and I am deeply impressed by the quality and quantity of Kotlowitz's immersion research; not only did he put in the hours, he did so at a location that would cause many journalists to flee.

This book, I think, shows the value that narrative has in producing social change. Statistics about poverty are such abstract concepts that people who have not experienced the kind of poverty in this book cannot begin to understand the day to day reality in which Pharoah and Lafeyette live. At least, I know I couldn't. It is only through detailed storytelling that we can have some feeling of what is experienced by another. That understanding can change people profoundly, and ultimately, change public policy.

Kotlowitz has called his writing the journalism of empathy and has received some criticism for having helped the family that he followed by giving them some gifts of clothing, and later, helping Pharoah and Lafeyette attend college. He has admitted that he felt he crossed the boundary of objective journalism. Read this book, however, and you will know that he had no choice but to help.

Customer Review: 4 out of 5
A Sociological Survey of Black Urban Poverty - The Wall Street Journal reporter Aelx Kotlowitz's "There Are No Children Here" is a sociological survey of life in a Chicago public housing complex called Henry Horner Homes. To research the book Mr. Kotlowitz spent two years hanging out with two young brothers Lafayette and Pharoah Rivers, but while in the midst of writing the book probably discovered other characters to be much more interesting, and thus devotes far more attention to them.

The main character is the mother, LaJoe Rivers, who is amazingly creative and resilient, trying her best to keep her family together against impossible odds. She comes from a family that has involved itself in politics, and thus she chooses not to just bitterly resign herself to her poverty, like most of her neighbors. Still, she is limited and crippled by the brutal facts around her. The dead-beat drug addict father of her children is a parasite on her resources, and his presence raises concerns from city welfare officials that she is double-dipping. There are a thousand arguments she could have employed to save her groceries, but instead she in the end resorts to gambling to put food on the table for her children.

In one of the book's final poignant scenes, Lafayette accuses his father Paul of selling the family dog for drug money, and that causes Paul to pummel the young teenager, who sits there meekly trying to soften the blows. No wonder then that Lafayette and LaJoe see authority, any and all authority, as arbitrary and cruel, not to be resisted but to be endured. Fairness in their world means simply to be acknowledged, and when the judge politely handed down his harsh and unjust welfare judgement, LaJoe could only silently think that the man was at least respectful.

There is an alien self-defeating logic that controls the residents of Henry Horner. When LaJoe's son Terrence is accused by the police of a crime he did not commit he does not choose to seek justice and fairness by proving he is innocent -- he thinks that impossible and ridiculous (And given the prevalence of police brutality, where the policemen feel that they must behave like crazy animals because they are in fact surrounded by crazy animals, Terrence is not unfair in thinking that he cannot receive a fair trial). Instead, he commits a real crime just so he would not have to suffer the indignity of being condemned unfairly by the system.

The greatest tragedy in the book is the death of Lafayette's friend, Craig Davis. A model youth, liked by his teachers and peers, he was an aspiring disc jockey who was once arrested by the police because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. When he is stopped by the police yet again he chooses to run away, trying his best to avoid jail and injustice. In the ensuing chase he is shot dead, and while there is ample evidence that the policeman acted irresponsibly and zealously the authorities closed ranks, and insisted that Craig Davis was a gang member. No wonder then that residents of Henry Horner think that calling 911 does not bring help, but trouble.

Authority means those who can bring law and order, fairness and respect, and that at Henry Horner for better or worse means charismatic and savvy druglord Jimmie Lee. What we perceive to be the cancer -- the violence, the drugs, the vicious circle -- is in fact the organism at Henry Horner.

At Henry Horner, there is a line between being a child and being a teenager, and the line is a final, irreversible edge, a sharp drop into the abyss. Being a child means still possessing the faith and imagination to see the possibilities ahead of you, and being a teenager means accepting the limitations of your world -- it means giving up on life. Pharoah is still a child in that he competes in spelling bees, and attends summer camps at the local university. Lafayette is a teenager in that he has already been arrested once by the authorities, and his friends are all spiralling into the world of drugs and gangs.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Satisfied customer - Book was bought for a good price, a little bit more worn that I expected but I guess it did meet the product description. Reasonable shipping time. Thanks.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
great - Book was sent quickly and was in great condition. Would do bussiness with this business/person again.

--> Find out more about "There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in The Other America" at Amazon.com or Order Now