There are No Children Here: Life in the Projects :: There are No Children Here Essays

Life in the Projects Exposed in in that respect are No Children Here The book There are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz is a in truth tough yet aflame book. This book is important to me because it really made me see how fortunate I am to be brisk in a good and unassailable environment. In this powerful and moving book, reporter Alex Kotlowitz traces two years in the lives of ten-year-old Lafeyette and seven-year-old Pharoah Rivers as they struggle to beat the odds and grow up in one of Chicagones worst housing projects called henry Horner. Lafeyette and Pharoah live with their mother LaJoe. LaJoe in addition had three older children, LaShawn at the age of twenty five was the oldest. She worked as a prostitute from time to time to support her drug habit. The neighboring oldest, nineteen-year-old Paul, had served time in Indiana prison for burglary. Terence, now seventeen, had began selling drugs at the age of eleven and had been in and out of jail. LaJoes youngest kids wer e a set of four-year-old triplets, Timothy, Tiffany, and Tammie. whole eight children had the same father, Paul, to whom LaJoe had been married to for seventeen years. The two had long ago fallen out of love. He lived at the home occasionally The families living conditions were horrible. They lived in a very small apartment which at time had more than ten people living in it. Since LaJoe was a very friendly and considerate person, she brought many kids and adults under her wing and took care of them when in need. Some kids in the neighborhood even called her mom. LaJoe did not have the spirit to turn her back on anyone that appeared at her door. All the apartments in heat content Horner were falling apart, many of which were vacant. During the spring of 1989 inspections were taking place in the basements of Henry Horner projects by the Manager, Assistant Manager, and maintenance Superintendant. The reported conditions of the basements shocked me. An estimated two gm applianc es, refrigerators, kitchen cabinets, doors, burners, grates, etc. were standing in pools of water rusting away. The basement was heavy infedsted with roaches and flees. Dead rodents were lying in storage areas. The stench and odor was unbearable. after much fighting LaJoe finally got the Chicago Housing Authority employees to find fault the basement.