Jocelyn E. (hoopridge) reviewed There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America on + 252 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 10
Oh, man...I had to read this for a college class and was bummed out. UNTIL I started to read it. WOW. Powerful, scary, uplifting, terrifying, sad, joyful, and true. I looked around my single dorm room a lot as I read it, amazed at all I had while wondering how these people who lived in the projects dealt with having almost nothing. As well as the poverty they had to deal with, there was also drug abuse, police harassment, violence, emotional insecurity, theft...so horrifying, and even more so when you remember that it is a true story.
But it's not all bleak. These are children, after all, and children have a resiliency, a bouyancy of spirit that keeps them optimistic and sometimes unaware of the seriousness of the lives lived around them. That's what these children bring to their mother's life: HOPE.
An amazing story.
But it's not all bleak. These are children, after all, and children have a resiliency, a bouyancy of spirit that keeps them optimistic and sometimes unaware of the seriousness of the lives lived around them. That's what these children bring to their mother's life: HOPE.
An amazing story.
Beth C. reviewed There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America on + 21 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Moving, disturbing, brilliantly written. This is the true story of 2 boys growing up in a Chicago housing project - everyone should read it!
Sara M. (Mom2EmNAbby) reviewed There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America on + 49 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
a glimpse into the lives of those struggling for survival and dignity in inner-city america.
Sheena reviewed There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America on + 107 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This is one of my favorite books. It's so amazing that Alex Kotlowitz was able to experience these kids lives and be able to share it with the world. Most People are oblivious to the things that go on in Henry Horner or any other project in America and this book shows the every day struggle that "The Other America" goes through. At times I felt sick to my stomach while reading this book but it's the realness that affects you most of all. This book details building conditions (the way they were built to repairs never being made), violence and crime (the lack of police, also murders and gang activity), and families caught up in the middle trying to raise their kids the best they can with what they had.
