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There Are No Children Here Reading Order
Alex Kotlowitz's There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America (1991) follows two brothers — Lafayette and Pharoah Rivers — growing up in the Henry Horner Homes, a public housing project on the West Side of Chicago in the late 1980s. One of the definitive works of narrative nonfiction about urban poverty and its effects on children.
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There Are No Children Here
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There Are No Children Here
Alex Kotlowitz·1991·The complete standalone book. No sequels; start and finish here.
There Are No Children Here — Frequently Asked Questions
What does 'there are no children here' mean?
The title comes from a phrase spoken by Lafayette and Pharoah's mother, LaJoe Rivers, during a conversation with Alex Kotlowitz: 'There are no children here. They've seen too much to be children.' The phrase captures the central argument of the book — that the conditions of the housing project, including the constant presence of gang violence, drug dealing, and death, have robbed the children who grow up there of the developmental experience of childhood, forcing them into an adult awareness of danger and mortality before they have the psychological resources to manage it.
What happened to Lafayette and Pharoah?
Kotlowitz maintained a relationship with both brothers after the book was published. Lafayette was arrested for murder in 1993, convicted of a lesser charge, and served prison time. Pharoah struggled with the transition to adulthood but eventually moved out of the projects. The Henry Horner Homes were demolished between 1995 and 2008 as part of Chicago's Plan for Transformation. Kotlowitz has written about the brothers' later lives in subsequent articles.
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