Finding a living space big enough for Lajoe and her family was never easy.  It was lajoe her husband , her two brothers and their kids and it was only a four bedroom apartment. The kids father soon left them and turned to drugs so Lajoe was left to raise the kids on her own. This was the start to everything that happened through out the book this was the root of everything. It reflects how strong Lajoe is because she never stopped taking care of her responsibilities because her husband turned to drugs. she struggled from time to time but she never gave up. Even in the toughest times when the cut her food stamps off which was her only in come she still made due. Lajoe always managed to help others in the neighborhood with their problems she was a loving person.

The schools around the projects aren't the best but they are the only few they have to choose from. The boys went to Henry Suder Elementary school because they had no choice. They went there just like all the other project kids, Henry Suder Elementary was over-crowded. Alot of the teachers had to spend money out of their own pockets because they didnt have the funding. They put their own money into their classrooms. Pharoah's teacher was big on dicipline and she believed that thats all the kids needed was a little desipline to get them on the right track. Shed belioeved in Pharoah she knew he could do good and make something of himself he just needed that ush that motivation to get him started. I believe any kid can do anything as long as they put thier mind to it and have something there to motivate them they can accomplish it wether it's your family or your neighborhood. With the help from his teacher he excelled in writting and in spelling

The gangs in Chicago plays a big part in the kids lives. They experience gang violence everyday. They have encounters with gangs on there way to school and in their apartment building. They have bullet holes in their curtains in their living room and in the wall from gang shoot outs. These things happen so many times that they are use to it and they know what to do in case of another shot out. They know to sit away from the windows and doorways. The gangs in their neighborhodod tend to target younger kids to adopt. The gang life is the greatest influence on the kds in the projects. They are influenced by what they see and they think its ok to follow in their footsteps.The gangs control everything like the drugs the gangs are so powerfull in Chicago. As a kid Pharoah witnessed someone get killed. I think if the kids had better role models they wouldnt turn to the streets for answers and reasurance. If they were looked after better they wouldnt get into as much trouble as they.

In There Are No Children Here Pharoah is not like the rest of the kids. He only has one friend and he put his future in his own hands. He doesn't let his neighborhood determine hid future. He's more emotional than the rest of the kids. He loves getting the attention of the older women around the neighborhood. There mother is aware that she can't raise all the kids on here own but she tries her best. She has to make due with the $80 she recieves every month. The $80 she gets isnt enough to raise 9 people on and to pay the bills. She tries her best to keep her kids away from the violence and the gang wars/

The conditions that Lafeyette, Pharoah, their mother and their younger siblings live in are horriable. Their housing projects were built on a budget. They aren't built with the necessities needed ny the tenants. The insolation is terriable and the elevators don't work. The trash chutes aren't built big enough the electricty in the builting doesn't work.  The walls are builted with cinder blocks. The apartments in the building are joined by medicine cabinet. People have been robbed and sometimes even killed because people come into their apartment through the medicine cabinet which is ccompletly unsafe for families that are living here.  Lafeyette and hs siblings had a pinic table as a kitchen table and they slept on cots. Als othe housing authority ran out of money to paint the apartments. The cinder block was became permently dirty. The bricks started to fade.

chapter 1-5

In chapters one through five in There are no children here it starts off with the two Pharoah and Lafeyette playin on the railroad with a group of there friends. Then it goes on to explain the neighborhood that these two live in. The two boys are growing up in the projects of Chicago. In this neighborhood there no activities for the kids to do there are only two clinics. Fourty-six percent of the people who live in the  Governor Henry Horner Homes projects are living in poverty. They are living off of a monthy check provided by welfare. The kids in this neighborhood turn to the streets and drugs and land in jail. It tells us how Lafeyette became a product of his environment by hanging with the wrong people.  On the other hand Pharoah was the complete opposite even though he was only nine years old he had full control over his childhood. As kids they have witnessed more funerals than weddings. Most kids won't even live to be eighteen. They get caught in violence between rival gangs in their neighborhood

Assignment 1

I chose to read The Are No Children Here because it interested me. The book caught my attention because it is about three little boys growing up in Chicago  I thought it would be some point in this book that i could relate to since i grew up in Philadelphia I thought it would be a few similarities between the two. There Are No Children here grabbed my attention before I even opened it just from the reviews and the summary i had read. Also alot of things these boys expericence are some things my family or friends have been through. This books is like a representation of the struggles and adversities we face in life.