Contains twenty-five essays in which the authors examine issues related to inner-city poverty and debate its causes and possible solutions, and includes personal accounts of life in the inner city.
Fourteen-year-old Shawn wonders if he would be better off starting high school in his mother's neigborhood, away from Compton, but the idea of leaving all his friends, and the beautiful Marisol, is less appealing.
Explores how the loss of blue-collar jobs has affected American society, focusing on the African-American urban poor who suffer from a lack of available training and education as well as declining government and private support of job programs, and outlines a series of programs that can help families of all races.
An inquisitive young boy who lives with his mother and younger sister in a rough housing project in New Haven, Connecticut, approaches his tenth birthday with a mixture of anticipation and worry.
After she and her parents move to an ethnically mixed inner city neighborhood, ten-year-old Joy and her new friend Neesha decide to do something to keep drug dealers off their block.
When his eight-year-old brother is killed in a drive-by shooting, Hispanic teenager Martin Luna is torn between his thirst for revenge and the pleas of his mother, teacher, and girlfriend for him to resist becoming a gangbanger.
