[Death at an Early Age] is one of the more perceptive of the books written by former teachers on the subject of the slum school. Among its virtues are the fact that it omits the fictional happy ending of The Blackboard Jungle and To Sir, With Love, and the attack against the pupils presented with varying degrees of subtlety in nearly all of the other books which have received popular attention. Moreover, the book is not amusing as is Up the Down Staircase. As a consequence, Kozol's book will not make a good traditional Hollywood movie, and the reader cannot be misled into thinking that there is a happy ending to the present situation in the slum school if only lone dedicated teachers persevere, that the problem is basically the fault of the children, or that the whole situation is so hopelessly bad that the best thing to...