Book Review: There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz

There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz (Anchor Books)

Inner city Chicago faces the same problems urban communities throughout the US do: gang violence, drug trafficking, high unemployment, failing schools, and death and incarceration rates for young African American and Latino males that are astounding. There Are No Children Here illustrates these realities by chronicling the experiences of two young boys who confront these challenges each day. As the reader becomes intimately involved in their lives, it is increasingly clear that “poverty” goes far beyond levels of income to encompass a sense of freedom, agency, safety, and justice.

Those who have read some of the other books reviewed in recent months will be pushed by Kotlowitz’s work to consider the relationship of poverty in America to that in “developing” nations around the world. Upon returning to the US this week, the TBB students will take up this issue as they question whether we live in a “developed” nation. Often, the standard of living of the US is implicitly and explicitly used as a standard or end-goal of development. By reflecting upon the needs of developing communities at home, key lessons can be learned about the nature, purpose, and end-goals of development. Indeed, such perspective may be the key to understanding what “development” means to each of us.

Robin Pendoley
Curriculum Director
Thinking Beyond Borders

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