This non-fiction book tells the story of three young men growing up poor in the slums of Philadelphia. The author documents the major events in their lives – with background on their family and how they got to where the story begins.
Reading about people that are stuck in the poverty cycle, surrounded by drugs and gang warfare – it forces you to appreciate what you have that might have been taken for granted.
The writing in this book is non-judgmental, and so we follow the lives of these kids who become adults very early, hearing about their experiences both legal and otherwise.
While this book doesn’t judge the kids and their families caught in this situation, it certainly has an agenda, focusing on the way schools in the area sometimes funnel their worst students into special juvenile programs and eventually into prison. The book examines closely the failure of the schools to serve their students – and instead follow a repressive school policy that quickly excludes kids that don’t follow rules just so.
The book cites a couple of programs that are doing things the right way, and shows how they help troubled youth by being more flexible and understanding. There is a lot of data presented to back up this approach, and it sounds like an effective solution. My only qualm here is that since they are so clearly sold on this solution the data they provide is likely cherry-picked. Could they provide some other ideas or considerations to help us decide for ourselves?
Thanks to the great writing this book really puts you out there. Sometimes I felt like the writer was going too deep – some people who showed up in the book didn’t need a full deep dive background description.
Overall it was a good book – I’m glad I read it. Next I am reading The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia McKillip.
