Alex Kotlowitz's biography, There Are No Children Here, was the recipient of The Christopher Award, and the Helen Bernstein Award, and tells the story of a childhood spent in a housing project in Chicago, at the Henry Horner Homes. Like many kids living in the Henry Horner Homes projects, the Rivers brothers live with their mother LaJoe, with a largely absent father who drifts in and out of both their home and their lives. He doesn't support the family because all of his money is spent on his drug habit and his alcohol addiction. Between them they have eight children; LaJoe had her first when she was just fourteen.
The story is a very dark presentation of the underbelly of society. Children as young as thirteen are already involved with gangs and they live a life of drug dealing and violence rather than going to school. The story also takes a closer look at the causes of domestic violence. Kotlowitz observes that children who grow up in dysfunctional environments are far more likely to have a violent outlook upon it. He also believes that if given half a chance, these same children could probably succeed in life. He sees the lack of opportunities as a violation of the children's rights, because those in charge of public welfare projects do not spend the money on the children, and the things, that they are supposed to, thereby perpetuating the problems that they are being paid to solve.
In order to research the book, Kotlowitz spent three years with Lafayette and Pharaoh Rivers, and their family. He conducts numerous interviews and compiles the book from several points of view, making the book a combination of journalistic reporting, urban non-fiction and biography. His diligent research paid off; he received four prestigious awards, and the book was selected as one of the one hundred and fifty most important books of the twentieth century. by the New York Public Library. It was also adapted into a television movie by Oprah Winfrey who both produced and starred in it.
The title is inspired by something that LaJoe Rivers says, commenting about how bleak her life has always been - "but you know there ain't no children here; theyve seen too much to be children."
