No Place to Be: Voices of Homeless Children

by Judith Berck, Robert Coles (Foreword by)

The stories and poems of actual homeless children--including fourteen-year-old Kareem, who lives in a city shelter -- depict the reality of homelessness in America, illustrating what it means to be deprived of the things most people take for granted.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published April 27, 1992

Reviews

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good topic, but horrifically dry. Even the frequent use of quotes didn't help. Maybe it was just too dated? I don't know, but it basically bored me...and I don't think that was the goal...

[Johnny A · Rating 3 out of 5]

The theme of this book No Place to Be: Voices of Homeless Children was to send the message that life is very brutal and non-forgiving for homeless families, especially the children. The protagonist of this story is the homeless children of New York. These children live throughout the Manhattan and Brooklyn area. It also covers the scary lives of the rest of the homeless families in these awful welfare hotels. In this book they share all of the dreadful and scary things these kids have to go and live through to get back on their feet.
I thought this book was a very interesting one and was a real page-turner. After I read this book I changed in the way that whenever I see homeless people, to not be scared, but talk to them and see what they’re going through. I also thought this author Judith Berck collected her information exceptionally well and is very knowledgeable about this subject. I also thought these homeless children did a very good job explaining their life story and how they became homeless. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to expand their knowledge about the subject of homeless families.

[Johnny Mai · Rating 3 out of 5]

America is not doing enough to help the homeless by sending them to drug ridden welfare hotels or apartments or the giant barracks full of families who cant do anything to get them back on their feet because of rules not allowing children left unattended even by other families they trust. The issue is how the homeless keep ending back in the placement office.

[Laura Hodgins · Rating 3 out of 5]

The parts written by the children themselves are very engrossing and there are a lot of statistics in here and references so someone could definitely use this when writing a paper. The author always blames the city or government though,never is it the individual's fault that they are homeless which I is true some of the time but not 100 percent.

[Sarah Goonan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite kind of sociological research - anecdotal! It was written in 992, so the statistics and the feel of the book let you know it is not contemporary. The stories and quotes from the children are powerful nevertheless.