"1942. Sadie Gault is eighteen and living with her parents amid the horrors of the Jewish Ghetto in Krakow, Poland, during World War II. When the Nazis liquidate the ghetto, Sadie and her mother are forced to seek refuge in the sewers beneath the city. Ella Stepanek is an affluent Polish girl living a life of relative ease with her stepmother, who has developed close alliances with the occupying Germans. While on an errand in the market, she catches...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A moving and powerful account by an acclaimed journalist that "informs the heart. [This] meticulous portrait of two boys in a Chicago housing project shows how much heroism is required to survive, let alone escape" (The New York Times).

"Alex Kotlowitz  joins the ranks of the important few writers on the  subiect of urban poverty."—Chicago Tribune
The...

A teenage boy must face the harsh realities of inner city life, a disintegrating family, and destructive temptations as he struggles to find his identity as a young man.

Two boys must outsmart the neighborhood bullies before they can enjoy their new treasure, a pair of lensless motorcycle goggles.

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. Ten-year-old Reeve McClain, Jr.-Junebug-shuns the gangs and drug dealers who inhabit the projects where he lives, and dreams instead of being a ship's captain and sailing away. Then Junebug's mother gets a job offer that would mean a move-but the decision...

All thirteen-year-old Raspberry can think of is making money so that she and her mother never have to worry about living on the streets again.

Faced with the harsh reality of growing up in the ghetto, 13-year-old Benjie turns to heroin to escape. After Benjie hits rock bottom, his mother and her boyfriend must sacrifice to help him overcome his dependency.

Three young, unemployed Frenchmen living in the ghettos surrounding Paris get embroiled in a violent conflict with the local police.

A look at the drug scene in Baltimore through the eyes of the dealers, cops, and users.