Perspective

Alex Kotlowitz was working as a freelance journalist when he met Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers. He interviewed them for text to accompany a photo essay on children in poverty to appear in Chicago magazine. Two years later he returned to Henry Horner for a summer to write an article on children and violence for The Wall Street Journal. He became good friends with the boys, often taking them on outings and summer fishing trips. In 1988 he approached their mother with the idea of writing a book about her sons and other children in Henry Horner. She agreed though said, "There are no children here," which became the title of the book. The author witnessed about fifty percent of the scenes in the book and the rest he re-created from interviews so they are dramatic renditions based on fact or other people's interpretation or recollection of events. Much of...