Amazing grace
Subtitle: the lives of children and the conscience of a nation
By: Jonathan Kozol.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Crown
Published: 1995
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 286
Subjects: Poor children -- New York (State) -- New York; Children with social disabilities -- New York (State) -- New York; Children of minorities -- New York (State) -- New York; Sick children -- New York (State) -- New York; Inner cities -- New York (State) -- New York; Mott Haven (New York, N.Y.) -- Social conditions
Description: Amazing Grace is a book about the hearts of children who grow up in the South Bronx - the poorest congressional district of our nation.

Without rhetoric, but drawing extensively upon the words of children, parents, and priests, this book does not romanticize or soften the effects of violence and sickness. One fourth of the child-bearing women in the neighborhoods where these children live test positive for HIV. Pediatric AIDS, life-consuming fires, and gang rivalries take a high toll. Several children die during the year in which this narrative takes place.

Although it is a gently written work, Amazing Grace makes clear that the postmodern ghetto of America is not a social accident but is created and sustained by greed, neglect, racism, and expedience. It asks us questions that are, at once, political and theological. What is the value of a child's life? What exactly do we plan to do with those whom we appear to have defined as economically and humanly superfluous? How tough do we dare to be?
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [257]-272) and index.