"There Are No Children Here" is an extraordinary book about living in the projects of chicago. This book is dated since this project got knocked down years ago, but it does not make the story any less relevant. It's about two boys, Lafeyette and Pharoah, and their families living day to day just trying to survive. You get into this story quick and stay there. It's a good read. I recommend it.

I found this book both rewarding and disturbing at the same time but appreciated that it took me out of my middle class comfort zone and reminded me that there are social and cultural inequities that continue to cry out urgently for solutions.
Mr Kotlowitz has the ability to describe the lives of two young gentle souls who are raised as best their mother can against a system that tolerates, shamefully, physical surrounds and economic deprivations that most of us can only guess at.
The author narrates his observations as he follows the children around and describes how they deal with the life they are dealt and the heroics involved in order to do so over a two year period.
I think that the way we are shown how their loving mother has to go about her daily life should awaken in all of us a desire to help in any way we can, to find ways to ease the life of those who live in sub standard housing and the lack of more assistance to live a more comfortable and nurturing life.
Without tackling such issues, we continue to condemn our youngsters to a way of life that inhibits their potential and ingrains the social ills that contribute significantly to their development.
Mr Kotlowitz,in deciding to help those youngster personally, to give them the opportunity to study at a private school, whether they did or did not ultimately benefit from his generosity, is an example most of us can only dream about.
I highly recommend this book to all who may wish to gain insight into a class in our society that cries out for understanding and assistance.

Incredible book and this is a strong and valid depiction of life in the Chgo Housing Projects as seen through the eyes of 2 young boys and their family members. The uphill battles and huge struggles are incomprehensible. You don't have to be from Chgo to appreciate this.

Kotlowitz has given us a striking example of the power of journalism.

This book is able to show the reader the plight of the urban poor without overly moralizing. Kotlowitz gives a straight ahead account of the lives of Lafeyette and Pharoah, the two brothers this book centers. Their struggles to retain their innocence while living in an environment that strips it away is mesmerizing.

I could not help but empathize with the families in this book. A lot of pundits will say that poor people are lazy, but this book brings a lot of their challenges to light. When survival is a day to day struggle, how can people be expected to get ahead? Kotlowitz details the struggles the boys and their families have in trying to improve their situation.

This book is a modern classic about poverty and its effects, in the vein of 'Down and Out in Paris and London' by George Orwell. Anyone wanting to understand 'welfare moms' and why they don't improve their situations should read this.

Nice mix of anecdote and historical background on life in inner city America. Excellent insight into the everyday difficulties faced by families and some of the root causes. This book, though almost 20 years old, still has a message that needs to be heard.

You don't need to look to Africa or the Middle East to find crime and poverty. Millions live in gang-riddled public housing projects, where violence is a fact of life. If these thoughts don't stir your heart, this book will.

As in his other book, The other side of the River, Alex Kotlowitz proves again what an amazing story teller he is. Kotlowitz spent a couple of years living with and getting to Know Pharaoh and Lafeyette in the Chiacgo housing project, a place where even the police are afraid to go into without back up. The life of these children seems to be written in the stars, everything is planned for them - poverty, delinquency, prison, abuse, drugs and finally death. Regardless of your stand on social (in)equality, wellfare and other government help, it is easy to relate to Kotlowitz' regard for the boys and some of their friends, although most of us are on the "right" side of the law and the more affluent side of society. The poignant story brings to mind the chicken and the egg debate - do people sink into poverty because of inadequate government help or do they have a hand in it? The boys' mother has 8 children, no job and her husband wont provide for them. Why does she continue to have more children? The government built housing for the people, but the housing is substandard, and reinforces the residents' feelings of being left behind, not on society's top priority. Has America given up on these children?
Can't wait for Alex to write an update, 10 years later.

I was required to read this book for a class and loved it! The story of these boys was so moving. I would recommend this book to everyone!

This goes out to everyone living in America today.... you have to read this book. I grew up in a small rural town. My only experience of urban life came from movies and rap music. This book made it plainly clear to me that we are sweeping Americas own problems under a rug. Though I feel strongly for the plight of others all over the world, how can we help them when we haven't spent the time and energy that we need to fix our own backyard? We need to invest in our future and it needs to happen now. This book should be required reading in our schools especially with regards to small town schools. These schools tend to "glamorize" urban life and gangs instead of understanding what they are, a means of survival for our scared youth looking for protection and who don't see another way out nor a future for themselves.

This book shows there could be millions of minorities living in a stagnant way of life, where they're not able to achieve or dream of the so called American dream. I loved this book, I felt this book, this book is important and it should be read by anybody that cares for those living a life that's unimaginable to many of us. Through everything Lafayette and Pharaoh were still children, I felt a lot of hope in this book. Through it all there was some kind of peace. This is my favorite book from Alex, I've read his other book The Other Side of the River and There Are No Children Here is his absolute best.

There Are No Children Here

This book is about two young boys trying to get passed the ghetto, and harsh life. The two boys are Lafayette and Pharaoh. They live in the Henry Horner projects. They are trying to get passed the everyday violence, hatred, and crimes that go down in the projects. They would do anything to have what other people have like a nice, clean home, some good clothes, a car for the family, and a good education. These boys don't have these things along with several other children living in the ghetto. They struggle so much to succeed in life. In the book they go through a lot of bad times and hardly any good ones. They support each other and they won't let each other fail without trying at first. It is not often that they have positive attitudes. Most of what they do and think is negative. Their behavior comes form their surroundings. Maybe if their surroundings were a little more decent, they would turn out better in live. I would recommend this book to people who have what these children don't so they can realize that they shouldn't take things for granted. I would give "There Are No Children Here" four stars out of five.

One of the best books that I read this year. "There Are No Children Here" is about two brothers try to fit into there world. These two brothers are deciding who they are. The two brothers are Lafeyette and his younger brother Pharoah. This book takes place in the Chicago projects. At the Henry Horner Homes. Everyday these boys only see violence. They see drugs, gangs, and murder. Lafeyette and Pharoah mother LaJoe talks to a report who is a writer for magazines. The report ask LaJoe "Can I talk to the children here" she says "There no children here" As Lafeyette and Pharoah grow up they only have a mom. So Lafeyette is a father figure to his younger brother Pharoah. As Lafeyette goes to his teen years he starts to hang with gang members and goes to jail a few times. Is Lafeyette a good father figure for is brother? Pharoah the younger brother is very dedicated young man he will always put a 100% in no matter what. He will never give up. What will happen to these two brother while grow up in the Chicago projects? Will they hang with Gangs and do drugs or will they try to make it out of the Projects and be someone. While read this book you feel like you are in the story, you feel like you are the report write everything. You could really see this really happen. I enjoy this book because it talks about the real world that we do not see ever day.

As referenced in the preface, according to the Children's Defense Fund, one in every three children lives in poverty in the city of Chicago- a remarkably higher rate than the rest of the country. Alex Kotlowitz's national bestseller "There Are No Children Here" depicts the poignant and powerful story of two brothers, Lafeyette and Pharoah, growing up in one of Chicago's most notorious public housing projects, the Henry Horner Homes. Although this is a story of hardship and tragedy, it is also a story of courage, hope and love. Kotlowitz chronicles the lives of Pharoah and Lafeyette as they confront racism and violence in their own community. This extraordinary story exposes the fact that two parallel worlds still persist in this county and how Inner-city America continues to be defined by poverty and violence and is maintained by institutionalized racism and social inequalities.
This story is at times difficult to read because for Lafeyette and Pharoah, violence is a part of their daily lives. They witness death, shootings, drugs, the incarceration of their older brother, their mother's struggle to provide for her family and the influence of gangs at an early age- certainly more hardship and tragedy than many adults will face in a lifetime. However, they confront these realities with courage and profound insight beyond their years.
The only negative aspect of the book is that Kotlowitz does not chronicle the educational experience of both boys adequately. We are given a brief glimpse into the quality of education that Pharoah receives and his academic hardships and successes, however, we are left with little to no information about Lafeyette's experience in school. Education is fundamental to the future success of children in poor, urban communities and it would have enhanced the story to have more insight into the quality of education that the two brothers received in order to gain a more comprehensive perspective of the inequities that exist in low income, urban communities.
When Kotlowitz first proposed writing a book about the lives of Lafeyette and Pharoah to chronicle the experiences of children growing up in urban poverty, their mother, LaJoe, remarked "But you know, there are no children here. They've seen too much to be children" (1). Despite their struggle to survive, we are reminded that they still are children tying to determine who they are and what their place is in the world around them.

My God, who has no feeling for these very unfortunate people are heartless ba*****s.American society flushes their poor and disadvantaged people away in the gutter. The gap between the poor and wealthy is increasing all the time and something has to give. Great book and should be required reading for high school seniors.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone. The author provides insight into the lives of two inner city youth. It makes you question our society and what we can do to help individuals who live in poverty. Poverty is not a choice but rather a sad reality that effects far too many of America's youth. Please read this book! It will change the way you think.

To hardcore conservatives who believe that the plight of the poor is no one's fault but their own, I say: Read this book. To hardcore liberals who believe the poor are oppressed by society and not responsible for their situation, I say: Read this book. "There are No Children Here" shows that life is more complicated than either extreme. The lives of the people in this book are governed by complex interactions of both personal choices and unavoidable bad luck. The author sympathetically examines the terrible hardships his subjects were born into, but never shies away from showing how their situation is perpetuated by the harmful behavior and relationships they choose to pursue. Whatever your ideology is going in, you will not look at poverty the same way after reading this book.

I think that the 'reader's' comments below about Thomas Sowell were helpful and I just wanted to add one more thing...

Most of the negative reviews about this book are people who are angry at Phaorah and Lafayett's mother, LaJoe. They claim that LaJoe is stealing from the government and blah blah blah. The problem is that LaJoe's story is NOT the authorial intent of the book - the subtitle of the book clearly states this: "The Story of TWO BOYS Growing Up in The Other America..." not "The Story of LaJoe Raising Kids in The Other America."

When reading this book, bear in mind that the book is looking at the two main characters who are born into a situation that they cannot help - is it their fault that their parents never got married, or that they get government money, etc? Hardly! People who get angry at the LaJoe and consequently miss the point of this book are like people who would get upset if you were trying to describe an apple and they want to talk about a pear. Concentrate on the lives of the children in this story to see what the book is really trying to say.

Having lived in two different boroughs and four different neighborhoods in New York City has opened my eyes even wider to 'The Other America' that so much of the rest of America couldn't care less about. Kotlowitz's book is a good start to understanding this oft forgotten group of people.

Make no mistake: this book should be read and contemplated from cover to cover. I am horrified to see some of the reviews given of this book such as given by Mr. Galt, and the unidentified 'reader' who should be too ashamed to reveal who he really is. Read the reviews by the above individuals, and stare into the face of brass hard cruelty and ignorant misunderstanding.

Kotlowitz's book is a look into the lives of two young boys growing up in the hard parts of Chicago, and very sucessfully displays many of the struggles that happen in such areas. The book goes into depth into the lives of the individuals who the book is centered on, and really gives an inside out look at the situation that way too many people are forced to grow up in: in the 'other America' that too many of us are content to ignore. The strong reactions by some (such as Mr. Galt) to this book gives good illustration to what Jürgan Moltmann wisely points out, that "[t]he people who enjoy the modern world because they live on `the sunny side of the street' fear the downfall of their world..." (Moltmann 1996, 135). Kotlowitz brings us into the the 'dark side of the street' to see the view of the world from the eyes of two young boys.

Read this book for yourself and make your own final judgements, but in my opinion and many others, this is an excellent read.

I might not have gotten to the second half of this book if it hadn't been assigned for a class. But I'm so glad I did--while the book started out a little slow (a lot of great writing and key information, but not a whole lot to pull the reader onward in the first 100 pages), by the end I was incapable of thinking about poverty in the same way.

While the information in the book is now dated (by journalism standards), Kotlowitz's portrait of the Chicago housing projects is incredibly moving--even readers on the extreme right will be hard-pressed to keep your emotional distance from the characters (surely no one deserves to live in an apartment with raw sewage bubbling up into the kitchen sink).

But though the author could easily have let his narrative degenerate into a depressing, disgusting account of violence, crime, and drugs, he does not: Kotlowitz is determined to present the human side of Pharoah, Lafeyette, LaJoe and their family. Like any other family, they also have their joyous moments--birthday parties and Christmas excursions. Like any other little kid, Pharoah wants to win the spelling bee. Like any adolescent, Lafeyette struggles with peer pressure. And like all mothers, LaJoe worries about her children. But the odds they're trying to overcome are enormous--the neighborhood gangs are omnipresent, and graduating from high school is usually an "if" not a "when." The reader can't help but root for them, all the way to the end.