Sample Book Reports And Summaries

“There Are No Children Here” By Alex Kotlowitz
[Writer Name Appears Here]
[Institution Name Appears Here]

Summary of “There Are No Children Here”

"Alex Kotlowitz joins the ranks of the important few writers on the subject of urban poverty." (Chicago Tribune)
The title of Kotlowitz's book, There Are No Children Here resonates the reality that children dwell at the deplorable projects. What the title indicates is that the deplorable, depraved, violent circumstances of their neighborhood robs them of their youth.
There Are No Children Here, the genuine tale of brothers Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers, ages 11 and 9 at the beginning, accompanies home the horror of attempting to shaping it in a violence-ridden public housing project. This lively portrait of two boys growing up in the Henry Horner Projects of Chicago exhibits an exceptional impression into the lives of people battling for subsistence and dignity in inner-city America. Author Alex Kotlowitz magnificently captures the moments of promising and optimism amid the blackness and ever-present hopelessness. This story contributes to a strong discussion against the politics of inertia, defenselessness and avarice and for a real war on poverty, violence and racism in this country.
The boys dwell in a gang-plagued war zone on Chicago's West Side, accurately mastering how to dodge bullets the way kids in the suburbs acquire to chase baseballs.
"If I grow up, I'd like to be a bus driver," says Lafeyette at one point. (Kotlowitz, 165)
The book's title comes from a comment made by the brothers' mother as she and author Alex Kotlowitz observe the challenges of surviving in such a hostile environment: "There are no children here," she says. "They've seen too much to be children." (Kotlowitz, 247)
This book humanizes the problem of inner-city pathology, makes readers care about Lafeyette and Pharoah more than they may expect to, and offers a sliver of hope buried deep within a world of chaos. “The people who live in America's public housing projects are perhaps our most maligned and misunderstood subculture. They have been labeled welfare cheats, criminals and rapists--and worse. Mr. Kotlowitz pierces the myths about housing projects.”(Washington, 1992)
LaJoe shifted into the Henry Horner Homes in 1956 with her mother and father. Back then it was an attractive place. There was a green, grass baseball diamond, which was repeatedly mowed. For the children there was a playing field with swings and jungle gyms. The bricks were smooth, the windows were shimmering, and the walls were freshly painted white. The adolescents joined boys and girls clubs, marching bands, and other constructive organizations.
Now circumstances are altered. The vestiges of grass are dry brown patches, chiefly dirt. At which place there was once a playground, there is at this time a shooting. The bricks are now tattered and unkempt. The windows are either transparent or smashed. And the walls are no longer white, rather a dull, yellowish color. Disaster of all, instead of combining boys and girls clubs the immature confederated gangs.
At the Henry Horner Homes, it was the Conservative Vice Lords that dominated. Led by Jimmie Lee, the group was in responsible for the project. Lafeyette and Pharoah knew all about Jimmie Lee. They knew to maintain their distance, but Lee was not exclusively a miscreant. To nonmembers he was merely a nefarious, immersed in drug-traffic, home attacks of dope flats, and other offenses. To the residents of the project, Lee was valued out of more than just fright. He in no way let juveniles join his gang. He spoke to kids against gangs and drugs. He would put food on tables for families in need. He would shoe the children with torn shoes. Even a police officer referred to Lee as a gentleman. He had a love for children and really helped the kids at Henry Horner Homes.
Isn't one of Kotlowitz's points, made in the early chapters that public housing was built "on the cheap" and inadequate to the task of housing the kinds of people it was intended to help? And isn't it also apparent that the project and social services in general are simply underfunded. Government programs to help the poor are more often than not woefully underfunded and thus almost doomed from the start to fail. Consider public housing like the Horner project. Many social analysts make this point: programs, as expensive as they seem to us, do not receive sufficient financing or are administered in such a way that they can't do the job they are supposed to. Consequently, the public, which doesn't have the full story, thinks they are a waste of resources and wants to kill them. Given what little people know, it's hard to blame them for this feeling. But after reading ‘There Are No Children Here’ we should better understand the nature of the problem. Ending poverty, homelessness, and the rest is going to take much more than half-hearted measures and campaign rhetoric: it's going to take lots of money.
It's an interesting account of people living in conditions that much of us "know" about intellectually but not in our guts. That is, we think we understand poverty, hardship, crime, drug abuse, and the like. Thus, this is a fascinating account of a lifestyle most of us haven't and (I hope) will never experience.

References

Kotlowitz, Alex: “There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America”. 323 pages Reissue edition (February 1992)

Chicago Tribune:
http://hallaudiobooks.com/general/864.shtml

Washington, Laura: “There are no children Here”. The New York Times Book Review. March 1992