There Are No Children Here
Worth buying if: interested in Chicago housing projects and Henry Horner Homes history.
Skip it if: seeking plot-driven fiction rather than Kotlowitz’s reportage of Shirley Rivers’s family.
Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780613024549. The Amazon link uses this ISBN, so the product page should open to the edition shown here.
If this page helped you decide, purchasing through the Amazon button above supports UPB Books at no extra cost to you and helps us continue improving the site. Thanks for visiting today.
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Some outbound links are paid links, at no additional cost to you.
Summary
Alex Kotlowitz follows brothers Pharoah and Lafayette Rivers and their mother, Shirley, through violence, poverty, and resilience in the Chicago housing project, blending reportage and intimate narrative to illuminate systemic failure and human dignity.
Why this book now
Kotlowitz’s 1999 account remains crucial for readers grappling with contemporary debates about urban housing, policing, and intergenerational poverty in America.
30-second preview
Two quick cards, fifteen seconds each.
Card 1 of 2
Best for readers who...
Good fit if you want...
- interested in Chicago housing projects and Henry Horner Homes history.
- drawn to literary nonfiction that centers boys Pharoah and Lafayette.
- seeking plot-driven fiction rather than Kotlowitz’s reportage of Shirley Rivers’s family.
- wanting upbeat, escapist reading instead of gritty social-documentary detail.
- You are specifically hunting for the newest framing rather than a backlist perspective.
Decided it fits?
Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780613024549
Worth buying if: interested in Chicago housing projects and Henry Horner Homes history.
Skip it if: seeking plot-driven fiction rather than Kotlowitz’s reportage of Shirley Rivers’s family.
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.
Reader guide
Cues to help you decide faster.
Reading commitment
Very quick Low time commitment
A compact but intense read (typical trade nonfiction length) that rewards focused attention to Kotlowitz’s scenes and interviews about the Rivers family and the project’s decline.
What stands out here
This Bt Bound edition emphasizes Kotlowitz’s on-the-ground reporting and includes his close observation of the Rivers children and Shirley’s choices amid Chicago’s public-housing collapse.
Best way to approach it
Read slowly to absorb individual vignettes and social context; pause to reflect on names, dates, and Kotlowitz’s quoted interviews to track the Rivers family arc.
Was this page helpful?
Quick thumbs only. No login.
Loading feedback…
Exact edition: ISBN-13 9780613024549
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.