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There are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America
This is the moving and powerful account of two remarkable boys struggling to survive in Chicago's Henry Horner Homes, a public housing complex disfigured by crime and neglect.
323 pages, Unknown Binding
First published February 1, 1991
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18031 people want to read
About the author
Alex Kotlowitz
18 books266 followersFROM HIS WEBSITE:
Between writing books on urban affairs and society, Alex Kotlowitz has contributed to "The New York Times Magazine", "The New Yorker" and public radio’s "This American Life". Over the past three years, he has produced three collections of personal narratives for Chicago Public Radio: "Stories of Home," "Love Stories" and "Stories of Money." Stories of Home was awarded a Peabody. He has served as a correspondant and writer for a "Frontline" documentary, "Let’s Get Married", as well as correspondant and writer for two pieces for PBS’s "Media Matters." His articles have also appeared in "The Washington Post," "The Chicago Tribune," "Rolling Stone," "The Atlantic" and "The New Republic." He is a writer-in-residence at Northwestern University where he teaches two courses every winter, and a visiting professor at the University of Notre Dame as the Welch Chair in American Studies where he teaches one course every fall. He has also been a writer-in-residence at the University of Chicago. Kotlowitz regularly gives public lectures.
Kotlowitz grew up in New York City. His father, Robert, is the author of four novels and a memoir of World War II, "Before Their Time." His mother, Billie, who died in 1994, ran the Thematic Studies Program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. His brother, Dan, is a professor of Theatrical Lighting Design at Dartmouth. Kotlowitz graduated from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Ct..
His first journalism job – after a yearlong stint on an Oregon cattle ranch – was with a small alternative newsweekly in Lansing, Michigan. After a year there, he freelanced for five years, producing for "The MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour" and reporting for NPR’s "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition." From 1984 to 1993, he was a staff writer at "The Wall Street Journal," writing on urban affairs and social policy.
His journalism honors include the George Foster Peabody Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the George Polk Award. He is the recipient of three honorary degrees and the John LaFarge Memorial Award for Interracial Justice given by New York’s Catholic Interracial Council.
He currently lives with his family just outside Chicago.
Between writing books on urban affairs and society, Alex Kotlowitz has contributed to "The New York Times Magazine", "The New Yorker" and public radio’s "This American Life". Over the past three years, he has produced three collections of personal narratives for Chicago Public Radio: "Stories of Home," "Love Stories" and "Stories of Money." Stories of Home was awarded a Peabody. He has served as a correspondant and writer for a "Frontline" documentary, "Let’s Get Married", as well as correspondant and writer for two pieces for PBS’s "Media Matters." His articles have also appeared in "The Washington Post," "The Chicago Tribune," "Rolling Stone," "The Atlantic" and "The New Republic." He is a writer-in-residence at Northwestern University where he teaches two courses every winter, and a visiting professor at the University of Notre Dame as the Welch Chair in American Studies where he teaches one course every fall. He has also been a writer-in-residence at the University of Chicago. Kotlowitz regularly gives public lectures.
Kotlowitz grew up in New York City. His father, Robert, is the author of four novels and a memoir of World War II, "Before Their Time." His mother, Billie, who died in 1994, ran the Thematic Studies Program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. His brother, Dan, is a professor of Theatrical Lighting Design at Dartmouth. Kotlowitz graduated from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Ct..
His first journalism job – after a yearlong stint on an Oregon cattle ranch – was with a small alternative newsweekly in Lansing, Michigan. After a year there, he freelanced for five years, producing for "The MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour" and reporting for NPR’s "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition." From 1984 to 1993, he was a staff writer at "The Wall Street Journal," writing on urban affairs and social policy.
His journalism honors include the George Foster Peabody Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the George Polk Award. He is the recipient of three honorary degrees and the John LaFarge Memorial Award for Interracial Justice given by New York’s Catholic Interracial Council.
He currently lives with his family just outside Chicago.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,170 reviews
March 14, 2012
For those wondering what happened to Pharoah and Lafayette, here's a quote from the author, taken from a 2011 Chicago Tribune article:
In 1991, the same year the book was published, Henry Horner residents embarked on a legal battle that led to a federal consent decree to have the site redeveloped. The towering high-rises were eventually demolished and replaced with town houses, condominiums and public housing apartments.
Public housing now in Chicago is "not perfect, but it's quite different from when we first started," Popkin said, citing the transformation at Horner, the CHA's commitment to resident services and the way that the agency is managed.
But many things remain the same. The poor are still extremely segregated, Kotlowitz said. Deadly violence still defines impoverished communities where rampant shootings are committed by a new generation of so-called cliques.
The characters of "There Are No Children Here" have met mixed fates. Several people the writer interviewed have been killed.
And Kotlowitz said readers of the book constantly send him emails, asking how Lafeyette and Pharoah Walton are doing.
"I think they really genuinely feel that they've gotten to know these two boys and they care about them and only want the best for them," he said. "You can tell by the emails that they are kind of rooting for them."
The brothers, now 36 and 33, have dealt with their share of adversity. They have both served time in prison and continue to struggle with poverty.
Pharoah Walton, depicted as the inquisitive younger brother, was paroled last year on a drug-related conviction, Department of Corrections records show. Over the years, though, he's joined Kotlowitz for speaking engagements and in 1993 was in the author's wedding.
Lafeyette Walton lives on the South Side and works inside a laundry. He was paroled this year after being convicted on separate drug, drunken-driving and handgun charges.
Depicted as the reserved older brother, Lafayette Walton said that he was conflicted about the success of the book during the 1990s.
While he got to travel the country and earned a bit of a celebrity status, the family was still poor. His mother had a nervous breakdown, forcing him to take on the role of caretaker for his younger siblings.
But Lafeyette Walton credits the experiences with Kotlowitz with giving him a broader view of the world, better able to cope with the stresses of the streets.
January 14, 2009
This book changed my entire perception of the power of journalism. Kotlowitz follows the lives of two young boys growing up in the projects of the near West Side of Chicago. I consider it a seminal book in my life. It was both heart-wrenching and mind-opening. The writing is smooth and thoughtful. It is exhaustively researched, and his access to the subjects just astounds me. That he could get them to trust him as much as they did is astonishing. Then the story he records just astounds. Before reading this book I would never have believed that life could be so destitute and hopeless for people inside the United States of America. It's informative without being preachy, too, which I like. It challenged many of my assumptions about government, birth control, criminal justice and gangs.
If I could give this book six stars, I would. A must-read.
If I could give this book six stars, I would. A must-read.
May 18, 2012
This book ended abruptly for me. I think it's because I wanted to keep hearing about Lafayette and Pharoah's days...make sure they were okay. I've felt a void not reading about them since I finished it. That is one sign of an exceptional book.
There is so much chaos in the Lafayette and Pharoah's lives. The book affirmed the importance of school with all its rules and rituals. The Spelling Bee! The biggest idea I take from this story is, as a teacher, school can offer some order, structure, some connection between cause and effect for kids who don't have it in their homes and families.
I'm also really interested in all the descriptions of space in the book. The lack of a common space or formal entry way in the Henry Horner Homes, the putrid, wasteful mess in the basement, doors falling off hinges in apartments, how hallways provide safety from stray bullets, the lack of grocery stores, restaurants, or businesses near the projects, and the looming money-filled United Center just a few blocks away. There is no respect for boundaries or the separation between public and private space. It's part of what makes life so tiring and dangerous.
I know there's more to say. I'm grateful for what this story has made me think about.
There is so much chaos in the Lafayette and Pharoah's lives. The book affirmed the importance of school with all its rules and rituals. The Spelling Bee! The biggest idea I take from this story is, as a teacher, school can offer some order, structure, some connection between cause and effect for kids who don't have it in their homes and families.
I'm also really interested in all the descriptions of space in the book. The lack of a common space or formal entry way in the Henry Horner Homes, the putrid, wasteful mess in the basement, doors falling off hinges in apartments, how hallways provide safety from stray bullets, the lack of grocery stores, restaurants, or businesses near the projects, and the looming money-filled United Center just a few blocks away. There is no respect for boundaries or the separation between public and private space. It's part of what makes life so tiring and dangerous.
I know there's more to say. I'm grateful for what this story has made me think about.
April 21, 2021
“What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-
Like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?”
~Langston Hughes
Having recently read An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago, I was anxious to read this author’s earlier work There Are No Children Here, that documents the life of two brothers, their family and friends in the late 1980’s in the Henry Horner homes, one of Chicago’s urban housing projects, the “other America”. It’s hard to imagine growing up in a situation where, amid the gangs, drugs and gun violence, children don’t dream about what they want to be when they grow up, but rather if they’ll make it past getting killed and have a chance at growing up at all. As with his last book, I thought the author did a good job humanizing the people he writes about, living in difficult circumstances with no easy answers.
When discussing the idea for the book with the boys’ mother, she said “But you know, there are no children here. They’ve seen too much to be children.”
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-
Like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?”
~Langston Hughes
Having recently read An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago, I was anxious to read this author’s earlier work There Are No Children Here, that documents the life of two brothers, their family and friends in the late 1980’s in the Henry Horner homes, one of Chicago’s urban housing projects, the “other America”. It’s hard to imagine growing up in a situation where, amid the gangs, drugs and gun violence, children don’t dream about what they want to be when they grow up, but rather if they’ll make it past getting killed and have a chance at growing up at all. As with his last book, I thought the author did a good job humanizing the people he writes about, living in difficult circumstances with no easy answers.
When discussing the idea for the book with the boys’ mother, she said “But you know, there are no children here. They’ve seen too much to be children.”
May 22, 2022
There are No Children Here immersed me in the tragedies of America. I have always seen articles about drugs, violence, and neglect, but I guiltily felt distant reading those. Alex Kotlowitz, however, made me realize the power of storytelling.
Growing up in a housing project in Chicago, Lafeyette and Pharoah watched the horrors of society at an early age. Every day poses an impending threat of death as gang wars and shootings rage within the area. These are the same events that I've heard on the news time and again, but only in this book have I felt the mental distress of always trying to escape death by a thread.
Through the eyes of Lafeyette and Pharoah, I learned that even the most innocent beings are traumatized and victimized by an oppressive society. It is through their eyes that I profoundly empathized. People live and die in a poverty- and violence-stricken place, and guess what? It is not their fault. They are stuck in a vicious cycle of abuse within themselves and injustice from the law. The problems have taken root deep enough that solving them cannot be done with simple development programs anymore. Solving them requires a deeper systemic change. As long as this doesn't happen, the cycle of trauma will not cease to continue. While the rest of the world progresses with billboards and city lights, communities like Pharoah's and Lafeyette's plunge into darkness.
Hard facts and statistics alone are not enough to raise awareness and inspire action. If I learned anything from this book, it's that we need more storytellers in the world. Humans are humans, and empathizing with data is difficult. Stories communicate facts and realities that most of us might find alien. Stories show us that there are real people living in tragedies.
Growing up in a housing project in Chicago, Lafeyette and Pharoah watched the horrors of society at an early age. Every day poses an impending threat of death as gang wars and shootings rage within the area. These are the same events that I've heard on the news time and again, but only in this book have I felt the mental distress of always trying to escape death by a thread.
Through the eyes of Lafeyette and Pharoah, I learned that even the most innocent beings are traumatized and victimized by an oppressive society. It is through their eyes that I profoundly empathized. People live and die in a poverty- and violence-stricken place, and guess what? It is not their fault. They are stuck in a vicious cycle of abuse within themselves and injustice from the law. The problems have taken root deep enough that solving them cannot be done with simple development programs anymore. Solving them requires a deeper systemic change. As long as this doesn't happen, the cycle of trauma will not cease to continue. While the rest of the world progresses with billboards and city lights, communities like Pharoah's and Lafeyette's plunge into darkness.
Hard facts and statistics alone are not enough to raise awareness and inspire action. If I learned anything from this book, it's that we need more storytellers in the world. Humans are humans, and empathizing with data is difficult. Stories communicate facts and realities that most of us might find alien. Stories show us that there are real people living in tragedies.
August 13, 2009
At the time this book was written, I was nearly the same age as the main characters and living only 12 miles away in the near west suburb of Bellwood. We thought we were poor back then but this book has opened my eyes to bottomless abyss of poverty.
I'm now convinced that it is nearly impossible for people to rise out of their circumstances. We're not all born with equal opportunities. This book describes a culture where children can't learn because they're hungry/tired/distracted by violence, women become mothers in their early teens and grandmothers in their late twenties, and young people are told by every authority figure that they're future criminals. How can you escape when you have no one to help? No family to move you out or lend you money? No agency that can see the individual in the crowd or on the waiting list? And the vicious cycle continuing when your child's lack of education lands them right back in the projects?
On the other hand, I also came away from the book with the realization that the people described should not be understood based on their circumstances. Despite their situation, the Rivers family could be any American family: genuine concern for each other, a desire to improve the lives of the next generation, good intentions with the occasional bad decision.
I'm now convinced that it is nearly impossible for people to rise out of their circumstances. We're not all born with equal opportunities. This book describes a culture where children can't learn because they're hungry/tired/distracted by violence, women become mothers in their early teens and grandmothers in their late twenties, and young people are told by every authority figure that they're future criminals. How can you escape when you have no one to help? No family to move you out or lend you money? No agency that can see the individual in the crowd or on the waiting list? And the vicious cycle continuing when your child's lack of education lands them right back in the projects?
On the other hand, I also came away from the book with the realization that the people described should not be understood based on their circumstances. Despite their situation, the Rivers family could be any American family: genuine concern for each other, a desire to improve the lives of the next generation, good intentions with the occasional bad decision.
November 29, 2008
A story of two young brothers growing up in an infamous project in Chicago known as Horner Homes. The book spans 4 years and deals mostly with describing how the boys are affected by poverty, violence, drugs, gangs and run-ins with the police. Won the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Journalism.
I'd been meaning to read this book for some time now. While visiting a friend, I saw it on her shelf and asked her how was it. She said, "It's good, but it's depressing. It's really depressing."
I'd say it was more depressing than good. It was fairly well written and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the subject, especially folks who work with children regularly, but it didn't contain any surprising, enlightening information. It also, in my opinion, seemed to lack direction. Many of the chapters brought little development - you just sort of watch the kids suffer. Maybe that's what Kotlowitz was going for.
The chapter where Lafayette (the older brother) confronts his dope-fiend father seemed like the climax to me. I almost cheered.
The last chapter of the novel describes how the juvenile court system fails Lafayette, accusing him of a crime he did not commit. I commiserated quite strongly with this chapter. I also had a run-in with the law when I was his age and I recall, at 15, being amazed at how spectacularly ineffective and counter-productive the juvenile court system was. I was arraigned in a packed, public court room - juvenile proceedings are supposed to be private. I was given 2 years of probation and never went to a single probation meeting or received a single call from my P.O. I was given 400 hours of community service and didn't serve a minute of it. What I did get from my encounter with the courts was instant acceptance from all of the worst troublemakers in my high school. The dealers, users, vandals, thieves and bullies - they all immediately welcomed me with open arms into their clique. I was invited to parties, greeted warmly by people I used to fear and avoid. I had instant street cred and a new group of friends.
Though Kotlowitz never details it, the reader can see that Terence, the boys' eldest brother, encounters the same irony. The public court system that is supposed to rehabilitate him, instead banishes him to a prison where he can socialize and be educated by more criminals, leading him further into a life of gangs and violence. I feel like an armchair quarterback saying it's a screwed up system when I have no solution...but...it's a screwed up system.
I'd been meaning to read this book for some time now. While visiting a friend, I saw it on her shelf and asked her how was it. She said, "It's good, but it's depressing. It's really depressing."
I'd say it was more depressing than good. It was fairly well written and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the subject, especially folks who work with children regularly, but it didn't contain any surprising, enlightening information. It also, in my opinion, seemed to lack direction. Many of the chapters brought little development - you just sort of watch the kids suffer. Maybe that's what Kotlowitz was going for.
The chapter where Lafayette (the older brother) confronts his dope-fiend father seemed like the climax to me. I almost cheered.
The last chapter of the novel describes how the juvenile court system fails Lafayette, accusing him of a crime he did not commit. I commiserated quite strongly with this chapter. I also had a run-in with the law when I was his age and I recall, at 15, being amazed at how spectacularly ineffective and counter-productive the juvenile court system was. I was arraigned in a packed, public court room - juvenile proceedings are supposed to be private. I was given 2 years of probation and never went to a single probation meeting or received a single call from my P.O. I was given 400 hours of community service and didn't serve a minute of it. What I did get from my encounter with the courts was instant acceptance from all of the worst troublemakers in my high school. The dealers, users, vandals, thieves and bullies - they all immediately welcomed me with open arms into their clique. I was invited to parties, greeted warmly by people I used to fear and avoid. I had instant street cred and a new group of friends.
Though Kotlowitz never details it, the reader can see that Terence, the boys' eldest brother, encounters the same irony. The public court system that is supposed to rehabilitate him, instead banishes him to a prison where he can socialize and be educated by more criminals, leading him further into a life of gangs and violence. I feel like an armchair quarterback saying it's a screwed up system when I have no solution...but...it's a screwed up system.
September 18, 2025
This book was devastating to read how these young children grew up in the Chicago projects. The book is a very close look at the lives of two brothers Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers, 9 and 12 at the start of the book. Journalist Kotlowitz was embedded into the Rivers family life for two years, Summer of 1987 to September 1989.
The family lived in the projects in Chicago. LaJoe Rivers had eight children with Paul Rivers and still remained married to her husband, which was somewhat unusual circumstance for their background. The kids father sometimes was around, but didn’t really live with them. The three older kids were nearly adults, Lafeyette and Pharoah were the middle kids, then a set of triplets were their younger siblings. LaJoe was on welfare, had food stamps, and had the constant hope of being able to move out of the projects.
Gun violence, drugs, and gangs dominated their lives, along with poor living conditions. The bathroom tub faucet constantly ran, doors wouldn’t shut properly, the stove oven barely worked, among other problems. And the apartment was overly crowded. Each of the older children had succumbed to either drugs or crime. LaJoe hoped at least one of her children would make it by getting a high school diploma.
Pharoah developed a stutter due to all the trauma he experienced. The summers were the worst, as gang activity picked up, shootings became an almost every day occurrence. The Rivers boys lost several friends due to all the violence, one an accidental police shooting. Their older brother Terrance was picked up an charged with a shooting he had nothing to do with, the charged ended up being dropped after the eye witness admitted he didn’t do it. Later Terrance was again charged with a crime he didn’t commit, but was now 18 so he was in adult court this time. Lafeyette also ended up in juvenile court over a crime he didn’t commit either. Just being black and nearby seemed to make you guilty.
The book was written very well, read like a fiction book. The author’s note explains how he conduced his research, verifying everything with multiple accounts, if he wasn’t there. Since this took place several decades ago, one can hope the environment has improved, although I fear not enough.
I was amazed to find an audiobook at my public library, and that got me to finally read this book. I bought this book back around when it came out, so it’s been lingering very long on my bookshelves unread.
The family lived in the projects in Chicago. LaJoe Rivers had eight children with Paul Rivers and still remained married to her husband, which was somewhat unusual circumstance for their background. The kids father sometimes was around, but didn’t really live with them. The three older kids were nearly adults, Lafeyette and Pharoah were the middle kids, then a set of triplets were their younger siblings. LaJoe was on welfare, had food stamps, and had the constant hope of being able to move out of the projects.
Gun violence, drugs, and gangs dominated their lives, along with poor living conditions. The bathroom tub faucet constantly ran, doors wouldn’t shut properly, the stove oven barely worked, among other problems. And the apartment was overly crowded. Each of the older children had succumbed to either drugs or crime. LaJoe hoped at least one of her children would make it by getting a high school diploma.
Pharoah developed a stutter due to all the trauma he experienced. The summers were the worst, as gang activity picked up, shootings became an almost every day occurrence. The Rivers boys lost several friends due to all the violence, one an accidental police shooting. Their older brother Terrance was picked up an charged with a shooting he had nothing to do with, the charged ended up being dropped after the eye witness admitted he didn’t do it. Later Terrance was again charged with a crime he didn’t commit, but was now 18 so he was in adult court this time. Lafeyette also ended up in juvenile court over a crime he didn’t commit either. Just being black and nearby seemed to make you guilty.
The book was written very well, read like a fiction book. The author’s note explains how he conduced his research, verifying everything with multiple accounts, if he wasn’t there. Since this took place several decades ago, one can hope the environment has improved, although I fear not enough.
I was amazed to find an audiobook at my public library, and that got me to finally read this book. I bought this book back around when it came out, so it’s been lingering very long on my bookshelves unread.
May 31, 2017
Readers may have to continually remind themselves, "This book is taking place in America. This is not a war-torn, third world country. This is the richest nation in the world."
The writing style is dated, but the things described here are still occurring every day in our nation. You think of all of the money spent to do things like give police in podunk towns military-grade vehicles and subsidize the production of junk food, but we can't even perform enough maintenance on low-income housing to make the buildings safe and suitable for human life, let alone all of the other stuff going on here.
The writing style is dated, but the things described here are still occurring every day in our nation. You think of all of the money spent to do things like give police in podunk towns military-grade vehicles and subsidize the production of junk food, but we can't even perform enough maintenance on low-income housing to make the buildings safe and suitable for human life, let alone all of the other stuff going on here.
June 8, 2017
Although this is a true story and very sad, I did not find this book very interesting. I don't know if it was because I have not worked with children this poor in the past, although I have worked with some very low income families, but I have not been around the world of drugs and guns as I am from the countryside and not a big city girl, although I have lived in some massive cities around the world. This book was an okay read, but I kept waiting for their to be a drastic, devastation to the story that never really happened...
January 12, 2010
This is one of my favorite books. It's so amazing that Alex Kotlowitz was able to experience these kids lives and be able to share it with the world. Most People are oblivious to the things that go on in Henry Horner or any other project in America and this book shows the every day struggle that "The Other America" goes through. At times I felt sick to my stomach while reading this book but it's the realness that affects you most of all. This book details building conditions (the way they were built to repairs never being made), violence and crime (the lack of police, also murders and gang activity), and families caught up in the middle trying to raise their kids the best they can with what they had.
July 1, 2014
I realize now I've been reading a lot of books about the old Chicago projects. Many of them tend to blur together into one tangled mess of shootings, pregnancies, drugs, and live-in fourth cousins, but this one really broke my heart.
Instead of trying to detail every catastrophic news blurb that makes it out of the projects, a white reporter named Kotlowitz somehow manages to spend years hanging out with just two project boys, Lafeyette and Pharaoh. He sees Pharaoh's first birthday party, which he had when he was 10, and which was interrupted by a shooting and an uncle who passes out in his own urine. He reports on the killing of Lafeyette's friend Bird-Leg, and the ganglords that attend his funeral.
The book presents a whole universe that can really only be described as "down the rabbit hole" from everything one thinks about a typical American life. The family must constantly huddle in a hallway to hide from stray gunshots ricocheting around their apartment, a mother must desperately pray for just one of her children to graduate from high school, sinks either run constantly for months on end or overflow with sewage, 10 or twelve people, and three or four generations, huddle together in a few crumbling rooms. But Kotlowitz is best at conveying the psychological effects of all of this, the boys fear of growing up, or of not growing up at all ("if I grow up I want to be..."), and the desire for peace or for any sign of hope among the other residents of the projects.
It was written over twenty years ago, and most of these projects have been torn down, but its not dissimilar to much of what goes on in those that remain today.
August 17, 2013
This is a wonderful book. In some ways, much has changed since Kotlowitz wrote this book: the Henry Horner Homes have been demolished in Chicago -- a relief considering the poor construction documented in the book, many cities are experiencing an urban renewal, and though Chicago is still plagued with violence, it's down significantly from the era this book documents (possibly due to the absence of lead). But at the same time, much has stayed the same. Poverty still limits far too many children in America, and even though it's certainly lessened, it's still a traumatizing reality for far too many people.
The stories are the heartbreaking reality of what it means to grow up poor in an American city. It means not just struggling to make ends meet, but struggling for your very survival. LaJoe, the mother of the two chief characters in the book -- boys Pharaoh and Lafayette -- constantly fears that her sons will be conscripted by the gangs or even outright killed in the crossfire.
The entire time I was reading the narrative, I had a sinking feeling things didn't end well for these boys. I was, sadly, correct. Both have spent time in prison, and now in their mid-30s, one is out on parole and another awaits release for a chance at a better life.
The optimist in me wants them to get it. The pessimist in me fears they won't.
The stories are the heartbreaking reality of what it means to grow up poor in an American city. It means not just struggling to make ends meet, but struggling for your very survival. LaJoe, the mother of the two chief characters in the book -- boys Pharaoh and Lafayette -- constantly fears that her sons will be conscripted by the gangs or even outright killed in the crossfire.
The entire time I was reading the narrative, I had a sinking feeling things didn't end well for these boys. I was, sadly, correct. Both have spent time in prison, and now in their mid-30s, one is out on parole and another awaits release for a chance at a better life.
The optimist in me wants them to get it. The pessimist in me fears they won't.
June 14, 2020
While this is an important book, the writing was not quite up to par. It was meandering and repetitive at times, occasionally also missing necessary context. I was offended by the somewhat congratulatory (or unconsciously condescending?) way in which the author referred to a father who "babysat" his own children while his wife was at school, mentioning again later that he "continued to look after the kids". Okay, the book was published in the early 1990s, but still. Such issues lessened my trust in the author's journalistic competence and in his intentions -- a white man, sometimes blundering in his attempts to get close to a black family that is literally struggling to survive, is of course judged more harshly by today's standards, for better or for worse.
I and the two children profiled in this book were born within two years of each other. I had no idea that such things were going on, that kids my age, in my country, had such lives, until decades later. This, too, is evidence of the failed system that produced the situation the U.S. is in today.
In short, reading this book is a (very small) way of taking responsibility, but I felt rather critical of it on several levels throughout.
I and the two children profiled in this book were born within two years of each other. I had no idea that such things were going on, that kids my age, in my country, had such lives, until decades later. This, too, is evidence of the failed system that produced the situation the U.S. is in today.
In short, reading this book is a (very small) way of taking responsibility, but I felt rather critical of it on several levels throughout.
January 12, 2010
Interesting read, and I respect what Kotlowitz achieved in bringing the troubles of inner-city America to suburban audiences nationwide. However, the pace is glacial and the book not particularly well-written; in addition, I noticed an astounding number of typos and other errors in this text. Surprisingly sloppy for a 20 year old bestseller from a major publisher. I rarely if ever notice spelling errors in books, but could not help but be distracted by the frequent errors in this edition. And before you complain, I don't mean quoted text contains slang and misspellings, only the portions outside of quotation marks.
Glsd I read it, but that is about all the praise I can muster up here.
Glsd I read it, but that is about all the praise I can muster up here.
Read
March 20, 2025No rating because it feels icky to rate someone’s literal life story, but I will say that this was a very moving story.
I think I would’ve connected with it more if it was written more like a memoir (as in from Lafie and Pharoah’s POVS) but obviously I understand why that isn’t the case.
Definitely shined light on some interesting and haunting topics though! I learned a lot about things that were happening in a city I live so close too.
I think I would’ve connected with it more if it was written more like a memoir (as in from Lafie and Pharoah’s POVS) but obviously I understand why that isn’t the case.
Definitely shined light on some interesting and haunting topics though! I learned a lot about things that were happening in a city I live so close too.
Read
April 15, 2021I feel a little weird giving this book a rating, so I think I'll refrain from doing so. How do you rate something so heartbreaking and frustrating and sad and intense? To see how little has changed, despite the time that has passed is nothing short of horrific.
August 22, 2025
Remarkably researched and told. A masterclass in reporting and essential reading for anyone who lives in Chicago.
June 23, 2025
I read this book because my mother suggested it to me, saying when she read it in college it was life-changing. (I think it likely could have been at the time she read it, it's much easier in this day and age to be aware of social issues so it ddi not resonate as deeply with me as it did for her.)
July 22, 2024
“…children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, their clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.”
June 25, 2019
The other America. What do I really know about life in the projects from my suburban life? Turns out nothing. Turns out it will make my stomach turn and weep for these children. While this book is decades old, and the projects that Kotlowitz profiles—Henry Horner Homes in Chicago— have since been razed, this is still a telling portrait of how some people are forced to live.
While the subject matter was at times appalling and grotesque, the writing was so readable, I couldn’t put the book down. Rather than telling or preaching, Kotlowitz simply showed the life of the Rivers family as they lived in squalid high rises, feared for their lives as gangs ruled their neighborhood and tried to navigate the justice system. My eyes were opened.
While the subject matter was at times appalling and grotesque, the writing was so readable, I couldn’t put the book down. Rather than telling or preaching, Kotlowitz simply showed the life of the Rivers family as they lived in squalid high rises, feared for their lives as gangs ruled their neighborhood and tried to navigate the justice system. My eyes were opened.
April 6, 2021
Am I really averaging reading a new book every 2 days at this point? Good news for my brain, bad news for my wallet (it's also indicative re: how much time I spent in March watching cooking shows vs doing more "mindful" activities).
Some of the writing in this reads as dated now. It's also a good book for sparking debate about how much an author of reported non-fiction should be inserting themselves into the narrative or not.
This book is about a now-demolished "vivienda popular" site in Chicago; as I was reading it I kept thinking about how many of the same problems—gang violence, unemployment, trauma, teen pregnancy, rape—are rampant in Medellin and in Central America.
The amount of police violence and harassment in this book (more specifically, the rampant lack of accountability for police killings and other abuses) is chilling and revealing. “'I’ve been living around here all my life and I ain’t got hurt so far,' he told the officer. 'Only the police have hurt me...'” (175) "''What you thought would protect you, you found out that you couldn’t trust,' said LaJoe, who was seventeen at the time. 'How can people kill a person like that? And lie? And cover it up?'" (179)
Similarly to "Evicted," the parts that left a huge impression on me were the descriptions of physical space. 13 people in a single apartment; four children to a bed. Horrible smells emanating from the toilet, rumored to stem from aborted fetuses; a bathtub that never stops running hot water; the raw sewage that rises through the pipes and blocks up the sink; the lack of a building lobby; the lack of basic lightning in the hallways and around the building; heating that is so cranked up during the winter that children get nosebleeds; the fact that the neighborhood has no parks, libraries, banks, or grocery stores that don't jack up the prices of basic goods; the basement that is full of rotting dead cats and dogs that the Chicago Housing Authority never bother to clean up, the once-new stoves/ovens and washing machines that are left to deteriorate and break down in said basement, because the Chicago Housing Authority never bothered to install them in the apartments with broken appliances.
What I found most repugnant was the number of people waiting for years and years on public housing lists, and the fact that a huge number of apartments in the public housing apartment were unoccupied because the Chicago Housing Authority didn't have the funds to fix them up to make them livable. The waste, the corruption, the stupid, pointless waste...
Similarly to "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" this book also made me think about how it's no wonder that people resort to drugs, drinking, gambling, etc, to try and get through the day. The book makes very clear how it's a coping mechanism to block out the past, only think about the present and never plan for the future. "If they don’t see her life take her nowhere after finishing school, it will be the truth. Only thing out here left is to sell drugs." (143).
Some of the writing in this reads as dated now. It's also a good book for sparking debate about how much an author of reported non-fiction should be inserting themselves into the narrative or not.
This book is about a now-demolished "vivienda popular" site in Chicago; as I was reading it I kept thinking about how many of the same problems—gang violence, unemployment, trauma, teen pregnancy, rape—are rampant in Medellin and in Central America.
The amount of police violence and harassment in this book (more specifically, the rampant lack of accountability for police killings and other abuses) is chilling and revealing. “'I’ve been living around here all my life and I ain’t got hurt so far,' he told the officer. 'Only the police have hurt me...'” (175) "''What you thought would protect you, you found out that you couldn’t trust,' said LaJoe, who was seventeen at the time. 'How can people kill a person like that? And lie? And cover it up?'" (179)
Similarly to "Evicted," the parts that left a huge impression on me were the descriptions of physical space. 13 people in a single apartment; four children to a bed. Horrible smells emanating from the toilet, rumored to stem from aborted fetuses; a bathtub that never stops running hot water; the raw sewage that rises through the pipes and blocks up the sink; the lack of a building lobby; the lack of basic lightning in the hallways and around the building; heating that is so cranked up during the winter that children get nosebleeds; the fact that the neighborhood has no parks, libraries, banks, or grocery stores that don't jack up the prices of basic goods; the basement that is full of rotting dead cats and dogs that the Chicago Housing Authority never bother to clean up, the once-new stoves/ovens and washing machines that are left to deteriorate and break down in said basement, because the Chicago Housing Authority never bothered to install them in the apartments with broken appliances.
What I found most repugnant was the number of people waiting for years and years on public housing lists, and the fact that a huge number of apartments in the public housing apartment were unoccupied because the Chicago Housing Authority didn't have the funds to fix them up to make them livable. The waste, the corruption, the stupid, pointless waste...
Similarly to "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" this book also made me think about how it's no wonder that people resort to drugs, drinking, gambling, etc, to try and get through the day. The book makes very clear how it's a coping mechanism to block out the past, only think about the present and never plan for the future. "If they don’t see her life take her nowhere after finishing school, it will be the truth. Only thing out here left is to sell drugs." (143).
March 4, 2014
I grew up in Chicago - Northwest side, Logan Square - and always thought my family was kind of poor. We wore hand-me-downs. We didn't go on vacations. I knew better than to ask for anything because the answer was always "No, we can't afford it", whether I was asking for money for a school trip - or lunch at the Woolworth counter. But we had a decent apartment in a safe, lower middle class neighborhood, adequate schools, and plenty to eat.
The lifestyles and environment of people who lived in Public Housing such as the Henry Horner Homes in Chicago, on the other hand, were so far below my standard of living, as to make me ashamed for ever having used the word "poor" in regards to my childhood.
This book takes you into the Projects, where you can almost feel the frustration, fear, and hopelessness that the Rivers family and their neighbors lived with on a daily basis. It wasn't a "happy" read, but it was certainly an educational one. Everyone should read this book, especially those who are quick to judge and condemn. Walk a mile in your brother's shoes first – if only vicariously!
The lifestyles and environment of people who lived in Public Housing such as the Henry Horner Homes in Chicago, on the other hand, were so far below my standard of living, as to make me ashamed for ever having used the word "poor" in regards to my childhood.
This book takes you into the Projects, where you can almost feel the frustration, fear, and hopelessness that the Rivers family and their neighbors lived with on a daily basis. It wasn't a "happy" read, but it was certainly an educational one. Everyone should read this book, especially those who are quick to judge and condemn. Walk a mile in your brother's shoes first – if only vicariously!
February 15, 2010
This reads like a sociology textbook, rather than a novel, which it is not. In all fairness, I lost interest halfway through the book. The climax that set the rest of the book apart hadn't shown up in those first 150 pages. Every day was conflict and climax. It is heartrending yet achingly difficult to not ask myself, as a middle class Caucasian, why did she continue to have children when the father was out of the picture? Why didn't she seek employment sooner?
But, as I pointed out, the circumstances of these people are so foreign to me that it was and proves to be, a very good education on the projects of Chicago.
But, as I pointed out, the circumstances of these people are so foreign to me that it was and proves to be, a very good education on the projects of Chicago.
November 1, 2022
Terribly sad non-fiction account of two young boys (brothers) growing up in the projects in Chicago in the late 1980s. Lafayette and Pharoah Rivers are about 10 and 12 years old and 2 of 8 children being raised by their mostly single mother. The author follows these two brothers over a period of a couple of years as they attempt to escape the pressure of crime, drugs and gangs in the projects. This is an important work and commentary on poverty/race in America. Although the book was written over 30 years ago, it doesn't appear much has changed.
August 31, 2008
I read this book while on vacation last week. Very moving and eye opening, poignant and sad. I think it's important to read about what life is like for others, people in different countries, different cultures, or people who live in difficult and turbulent contexts, like the boys in this book, (the Chicago projects). I am now curious about what has happened to the two boys, Pharaoh and Lafayette, and their families and friends since publication of this book.. I wonder, does anyone know?
June 22, 2021
This is one of saddest things I have read in a long time, if your heart doesn't break for those two little boys and all of the people stuck living in those horrible conditions then you have an empty hole where the heart should be. Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is impossible when you don't even have boots!
March 19, 2017
Really strong start, but by the time I got to the last few chapters, I couldn't wait to put the book down; it was so repetitive and boring.
March 31, 2021
There are No Children Here isn’t just another book; this is a life changer. It is an incredibly rare form of spectacular journalism that absolutely rips you to shreds, devours you, and spits you out. No words I can write come close to what this book made me feel.
Kotlowitz’s engrossing piece follows the day to day life of Lafeyette and Pharoah, two young children growing up in the Chicago Public Housing Projects with their mother and siblings. Despite their mother’s dedication to doing her best for them, small glimmers of these boy’s childhood innocence and experiences are consistently and heartbreakingly
overpowered by sobering examples of violence, poverty, and hopelessness. I had to consistently pause my reading to digest in disbelief or sob. At moments I simply couldn’t fathom that this is not only a true story, but a story that is not unique in its nature. This is a story that isn’t limited to Lafeyette and Pharoah - this is a reality that millions of young BIPOC children and families have and continue to experience in a drastically increasing manner.
Despite nearing its 30 year publication anniversary, the topics covered in There are No Children Here have never felt more timely and relevant. Issues surrounding racial injustice, rigged systems, police brutality, and two vastly different Americas have remained disturbingly unchanged.
This book is absolutely and unarguably a must read. Everybody needs to put this on their “to read” list immediately.
Kotlowitz’s engrossing piece follows the day to day life of Lafeyette and Pharoah, two young children growing up in the Chicago Public Housing Projects with their mother and siblings. Despite their mother’s dedication to doing her best for them, small glimmers of these boy’s childhood innocence and experiences are consistently and heartbreakingly
overpowered by sobering examples of violence, poverty, and hopelessness. I had to consistently pause my reading to digest in disbelief or sob. At moments I simply couldn’t fathom that this is not only a true story, but a story that is not unique in its nature. This is a story that isn’t limited to Lafeyette and Pharoah - this is a reality that millions of young BIPOC children and families have and continue to experience in a drastically increasing manner.
Despite nearing its 30 year publication anniversary, the topics covered in There are No Children Here have never felt more timely and relevant. Issues surrounding racial injustice, rigged systems, police brutality, and two vastly different Americas have remained disturbingly unchanged.
This book is absolutely and unarguably a must read. Everybody needs to put this on their “to read” list immediately.
July 20, 2020
Reading this book was a rather surreal experience for me. In September of 1987 I flew to the US to visit relatives. I was picked up in Chicago and we spent the night at the airport hotel. Watching the news, we saw a story of a drive-by shooting in these projects, in which a bullet penetrated the wall of a building and ended up in an elderly lady's eye as she lay in bed. While reading the first section of the book, I would often compare what LaJoe and her family were going through with what I did during my vacation.
I can't say I "enjoyed" this book, but it gripped me from start to finish. Many people in the US today seem to find it hard to believe that whole families live in desperate poverty, white as well as black, and that not all of them are "lazy", alcoholics or drug addicts or lowlifes. And yet even in small town America there are families sleeping in their cars or cheap motels, lacking basic health care, and trying to keep their kids safe.
It was ironic that due to an article the author wrote for the Wall Street Journal, the mother of the family in this case study lost her welfare benefit for a period. Some people might roll their eyes at Kotlowitz' using money from the book to pay for the boys' tuition to parochial school. I wonder what those same people are doing, hands-on, to change even one life of the very poor.
I can't say I "enjoyed" this book, but it gripped me from start to finish. Many people in the US today seem to find it hard to believe that whole families live in desperate poverty, white as well as black, and that not all of them are "lazy", alcoholics or drug addicts or lowlifes. And yet even in small town America there are families sleeping in their cars or cheap motels, lacking basic health care, and trying to keep their kids safe.
It was ironic that due to an article the author wrote for the Wall Street Journal, the mother of the family in this case study lost her welfare benefit for a period. Some people might roll their eyes at Kotlowitz' using money from the book to pay for the boys' tuition to parochial school. I wonder what those same people are doing, hands-on, to change even one life of the very poor.
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