Alex Kotlowitz's book, There are No Children Here, is a story about two boys, Pharaoh
and Lafeyette Rivers growing in the late 1980's in Henry Horner, a housing project in Chicago. The boys try to retain their youth while they see constant gang violence, death of close friends, their brother in jail and their dad struggling with a drug addiction.
In Horner, there are two gangs that claim it as their turf, and the Rivers family is constantly ducking from shots of gunfire there. They live in an overcrowded apartment with leaky facets, heating problems and animal carcasses in the basement. The boys' mother, LaJoe, tries to keep them away from gangs and violence since her eldest children fell to the harsh reality of the neighborhood. The children constantly have to protect themselves from danger and quickly lost their childhood along the way. LaJoe even has to purchase burial insurance for her children because she fears the worst due to the severity of Horner.
The boys find......

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Title: There Are No Children Here
Approximate Word Count: 1831
Approximate Pages: 8 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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