Amazing grace : the lives of children and the conscience of a nation

by Jonathan Kozol

Paper Book, 1996

Status

Available

Call number

HV885.N5K69

Genres

Publication

New York : HarperPerennial, 1996.

Description

Amazing Grace is a book about the hearts of children who grow up in the South Bronx - the poorest congressional district of our nation. Without rhetoric, but drawing extensively upon the words of children, parents, and priests, this book does not romanticize or soften the effects of violence and sickness. One fourth of the child-bearing women in the neighborhoods where these children live test positive for HIV. Pediatric AIDS, life-consuming fires, and gang rivalries take a high toll. Several children die during the year in which this narrative takes place. Although it is a gently written work, Amazing Grace makes clear that the postmodern ghetto of America is not a social accident but is created and sustained by greed, neglect, racism, and expedience. It asks us questions that are, at once, political and theological. What is the value of a child's life? What exactly do we plan to do with those whom we appear to have defined as economically and humanly superfluous? How tough do we dare to be?… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member JFBallenger

Every comfortable American should read this book. Kozol spent more than a year walking and talking with the people living in the Bronx neighborhood of Mott Haven, some of the poorest people in the United States during the 1990s (or any era), and writes a passionate, clear-eyed and nuanced account

of the pain, suffering, tragedy, profound courage and the rare triumphs of spirit to be found there.
Perhaps more importantly, the book unflinching reveals the the stark injustice and callous indifference that creates and sustains the modern urban ghetto.

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LibraryThing member becskau

This book is the incredibly shaking story of the poor of the poor in our nation. This is a book that I would definitely reserve for an older age group. This books takes a very detailed look at the oppression facing the poor in New York and the way that the system forces them to seek help and then

rejects them. The reason I would include this book is because, if I thought my students were old enough, I think that this can be a very powerful tool in shaping students' impressions of the world they live in - and this book can also be a very powerful call to action. I would worry about the extent of graphic detail, however I think that this book truly offers students a way to step outside of their own perspective. While understanding most texts involves relating yourself to the work of the text, I think that this book offers a different approach in that it forces the reader to interact with a perspective that may be wholly un-relatable to them - and through this is an opportunity for tremendous growth as a person.

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LibraryThing member GoofyOcean110

This is an incredibly depressing book.

LibraryThing member kellifrobinson

I think this book would have had much more of an impact if I'd read it back in 1995 when it was first published. The cold sad truth is that these stories are now all-too-familiar in many impoverished neighborhoods around our nation including in my own city of Birmingham, Alabama. Although I have

not studied the statistics, my gut tells me that the income gap between the poorest poor and the richest rich in New York City has widened substantially since this book was written. The New York Times, however, reported just this year about the number of middle class professionals, many of them white, moving into the neighborhoods described in Jonathan Kozol's book. Apparently the attraction is affordable real estate, an increasingly safe neighborhood where major crime has plummeted over the past 20 years, and a reasonable commute to jobs in Manhatten. I'm pleased to hear that the reputation of the neighborhood is changing for what appears to be the better but I would be very interested in a follow up book on the children highlighted in "Amazing Grace." Where are they today and have those precious children benefited from the enhancements and improvements in their neighborhood? My prayers may have already been answered as Kozol's newest book, Fire in the Ashes, which was published in August 2012 does just that.

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LibraryThing member Rascalstar

This book should be a must-read for everyone if things are to change. The author writes movingly and powerfully about the children and their mothers of one of the poorest places in the US, Mott Haven in the Bronx of New York. The events are disturbing and the children's voices and observations are

unforgettable. How can this happen? The people with enough money to help change things don't. The people with enough courage try. This book was published in 1995, but I'd guess that nothing much has changed in those areas.

Now we have drugs everywhere, but it's nothing new to the Bronx. The mothers and children living there don't have the basics, and yet we as a nation allow this to continue. All of us need to educate our children differently so that these problems can be solved and the use of drugs and violence disappears. Is this possible? Of course it is, but it may take generations and we need to begin now. In the meantime, we somehow need to embrace the poorest in our nation and help them. It doesn't always involve money; sometimes an attitude is all important.

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LibraryThing member robinmusubi

It is hard to find words to express what I think about this novel. The content is not ground breaking. It is the experience of the ghetto through the eyes of a middle class white man. The experiences in this book may not seem special to those millions who experience it every day. However, for the

people who live sheltered like me, this book is a powerful instrument for exposing the profound evil, the genocide perpetrated by this nation against its own people every single day.

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