Customer Reviews

All God's Children: Inside the Dark and Violent World of Street Families

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a disturbing and challenging look at the growing culture of street kids and the street families evolving in cities around us.

As a teacher I watched bright students, with great home lives, grow up and be drawn into dangerous groups. Some ended up on the streets. Danielle, one of the youths responsible for the murder in Portland, could have been one of my students.

As someone who works in an urban area and comes in daily contact with the growing number of kids who are living on the street, the book rang true to my experience. As a parent and educator it is information that is timely and important. Why are so many young people choosing danger and violence? Why is the life on the street drawing bright kids who have other options? What is the street culture offering them and how do we respond?

This will be a hard read for those in social service agencies who find themselves working so hard to earn the trust of street kids. If what Denfeld writes is true, then they will need to modify the way they provide services to keep from enabling kids to stay out on the street. This may well be a new paradigm, one where some kids on the street are victims but just as many are volunteers.

I hope this book helps to begin a dialogue about what is happening to the teens in our families and in our communities.

Rene Denfeld does an excellent job showing us how foreign the street kid culture is from the society that surrounds them and how easy it is for new kids to fall into it.

In college, I volunteered at the Covenant House. Every Thursday from 7-10pm we would drive around the worst parts of Houston handing out sandwiches and juice packs to the homeless and letting them know that any homeless kids were welcome back at the Covenant House.

What impressed me the most was how different the homeless adults were from the teenagers. The adults were what you would expect homeless to be like. Some depressed, some hungry, some listless, some drunk, some too embarrassed to tell their kids they were living on the streets, usually grateful for a sandwich or a clean pair of socks. The kids on the other hand were on an adventure. None of them ever came back to the Covenant House with us. They always had someone to stay with, or a car to ride in to Las Vegas, ... places to go, things to see. And they never seemed hungry. Full of hope. And then I would listen to them talk and be just horrified. I will always remember the conversation between two fifteen year old girls, with babies in their laps, talking about the job they had the night before at a strip club. The way they had been treated was inhumane. (I tried - unsuccessfully - to get all my friends to avoid strip clubs in Houston forever.) Yet these girls just took it in stride. At the time, I thought it was because they were kids and kids had more hope and maybe more strength and flexibility. After reading Rene Denfeld's book All God's Children: Inside the Dark and Violent World of Street Families, I now think it's because they live in an alternate reality, a completely different culture, than the rest of us. Rene Denfeld describes the completely alien culture of street kids in a way that not only made sense but completely matched what I saw. It was fascinating and terrifying.

As a side note, Rene blames many of the agencies that help street kids for promoting the street kid culture. By providing them food and resources they enable the street life - large groups of kids with nothing to do except hang out and create their own rules. Very harsh and violent rules.

I am an avid reader or nonfiction, but found this book hard to read since it jumps all over the place. There are a lot of people to try to keep track of, things seem not to flow right, and it jumps from person to person with no transition or reason for the scatterings of it. Its hard to keep track of what is going on till the end where it is more of a straight timeline. I enjoyed the information it provided about a subject I knew nothing about, and since I live in Madison WI I have seen these kids on State Street, and now know more about the dynamics of the "family" but I gave it 2 stars because of the fact it was so hard to follow with all the bouncing around. I felt it would have been a better read if there was more of a full timeline, less jumping from person to person, and if it seemed more of a complete thought rather then learning a bit about someone, then moving on to someone else, and then later back to more of this persons background or personality. It was just to hard to grasp who someone was since you never get the full information till many pages later, and by then you are focused on someone else the way the author takes you, and you have to time out to try to remember now who they are talking about. If you want to read this, I would get it from a library rather then buy it. Also I read the other reviews about it, and wonder if they are real or placed since I do not agree with the people saying it was well written. Its full of a lot of great information, but not well written at all, but you can make your own conclusion.

Denfeld is brave and honest in bringing to light a sad truth that none of us want to believe, nor except, about any of the kid's on the streets of Portland , or anywhere in America. She is clear that it is not all that go down this dark road,that many are truly homeless, with no other choice, and makes the point that the organizations that are there to help, need to have more knowlege of the culture. Chilling, brutal, yet hopeful, because it gave information about how to be aware and get on the road to solve this problem.

As a Portland native, I highly recommend this book. It is written from an investigative reporter view with info from all sides involved: homeless youth in Portland, the kids and adults inside the street family that the book deals with, the historical and present day violence within street families, the loving family of Jessica the murder victim as well as Jessica herself, the police officers and detectives involved in the grisly investigation and how some of the social service agencies in downtown Portland turned a blind eye to some serious issues. It also provides a great overview and history of street youth and street family culture and how wide spread and connected it really is. This book challenges us to really look at what is going with some of the young teens and adults that live on the streets in violent street families and why we as a society have chosen to ignore the violence and murder. It is grim and disturbing but honest and thought provoking, something many journalists and authors have forgotten how to do, but Denfeld has not.

This is an excellent book. The author shows us the horrifying underbelly in today's society of the young & homeless. There aren't rose-colored glasses here; it's the factual, brutal truth of what's going on with a new generation of homeless. The book is truly troubling, especially the detailed beatings & murders. The sense of detachment these "kids" (16-27) seem to have is unnerving. A must read.

Ms. Denfeld has undergone harsh criticism from homeless advocates & those who work in shelters, as have the parents of Jessica Williams, 1 of the murder victims. Both have done a great deed by putting this in writing & letting the truth be heard, by those who will listen.

Having many years experience working with youth on the streets I have yet to come across ONE who has chosen a life of homelessness. While Denfeld writes of one horrifying situation she unfortunately connects this violence to all street youth. However, this is dangerously wrong, and paints a demonizing picture of youth who are surviving on the streets against all odds. There is already a stigma regarding homeless youth, and I fear Denfeld is perpetuating a damaging myth that these youth are from loving homes and choosing a life of homelessness...All she is doing is harming an already vulnerable population, and swaying the public from supporting their own children. Most of the youth I work with on the streets are there because their life at home was shockingly abusive, and the streets were safer. They are survivors in every sense of the word, they are nonviolent, often working, intelligent and engaging individuals who daily fight against a society who finds it easier to judge them than to realize the alarming rate of family trauma that is forcing children to leave their homes to search for safety on the streets. As a society we need to come together to allow these children to reach their amazing potential, not blame them for having been born to unsafe families. Yes, the story Denfeld wrote of is tragic, but it is so far from what happens on the street she was wrong to imply this violence as the norm. The streets are not fun, simply surviving day to day is no life, it is not a glamorous existence, it is often frightening, frustrating and painful. Anyone who asserts that youth chose a life on the streets is sadly misinformed, and I believe choosing to remain ignorant because they are simply not strong enough to realize how many thousands of children have been thrown in this country.

I really enjoyed the book, and enjoyed it even more that it was so cheap. The only thing that annoyed me was how the police and homeless shelters handled this. I don't know how it is now a days, but it really annoys me. I know there are some people on the streets by circumstance, but the most of the ones they talked about in the book wanted to be there. And I kept reading about how the shelters had all these resources to help them get a hand up, and here I am for almost 3 years without a job (luckily I can live with family), and can't get hired anywhere. I don't do drugs, never been arrested, and have a great work history, but I don't see any organizations trying to help people like me out. Just because we're in the middle, we get forgotten. But other than that, the book itself was really good.

All God's Children by Rene Denfeld tells the agonizing story of a phenomenon that has become widespread throughout the United States- the phenomenon of street families. In her book, Denfeld reveals a world so alien to what we have come to expect from a fully functional society, a world filled with rules and laws that are not defined by the state but by youths who have abandoned their homes to eek out an existence on the streets.

According to Denfeld, there are over 1.5 million street kids in the United States alone. While many of these kids succumb to their own desire for rebellion, the street culture they have chosen as an alternative is a far cry from the anarchy we might envision. Rather, it is a culture that exists under the control of 'fathers' and 'mothers' who exert their authority and demand a strict loyalty from their children. As part of their daily activities the children go out onto the streets and 'pan-handle'- scrounge for money- bringing back the proceeds for their street parents to use as they please. Often the money goes towards purchasing drugs, primarily methamphetamines. This is a world of violence and blood shed in which barbaric beatings and sometimes killings occur whenever there is a feeling that family loyalties have been breached.

Street families live out their own Dungeons & Dragons-style dramas constantly creating and inventing stories that give them reason to beat, torture and kill. Hostels and accommodation agencies do what little they can to provide shelters and food for these children to live on. Yet unwilling and powerless as they are to intervene, those running these shelters can only hope that the part they play may one day encourage these children to enter back into civilized society.

Portland, Oregon was the location of a street-family-related murder in 2003. The victim was a girl by the name of Jessica Williams, massacred by a group of children who just happened at that moment to be playing out a drama. Pounded, bruised, punched, beaten and set on fire, Jessica's corpse was all but recognizable to those who knew her. The 'father' of this street family was James Daniel Nelson- a man who as a child had experienced abuse at the hands of his alcoholic parents and had suffered from the effects of alcohol poisoning during development. Nelson dabbled in witchcraft and satanism turning to violence even as a teenager.

Tragedy and instability all had a part to play in the fate that befell many of the children who lived under Nelson's influence. Names such as Grant Charboneau, Carl Alsup and Jimmy Stewart stand as testimony of what a loveless upbringing can do to a child. Growing up in broken families, unstable homes and facing abuse from their parents, these children had nowhere to turn to except the streets. The dramas and fantasies of street violence were just what they needed to forever bury their past.

James Nelson took advantage of their desperation. In his street family as in many throughout the country, the children took on the names of mythical heroes and gods- people who they could identify with as part of their own fantasizing. Nelson became 'Thantos'- the Greek god of death- and exerted that image to the full in almost everything he did. Having spent over 10 years in prison for the murder of one of his own, Nelson became a cult figure who attracted the 'newbies' through his boastful talk of murder and revenge.

Nelson's cultivated his violent tendencies through his own 'death knight warriors'- members of the family especially trained for armed combat. A girl called Danielle Cox was one of them. Still carrying the deep scars left by the tragic death of her father- killed in a plane crash when she was only thirteen- Danielle abandoned a university education and the prospects of a bright future to join the street culture. She was by her own admission attracted by the 'father figure' that Nelson provided and which she had never had growing up as a teenager. She quickly became one of his most violent family members, frequently threatening other kids with her aggressive and violent demeanor.

After just a few weeks on the streets, Danielle became embroiled in another 'drama' this time against Jessica Williams. Angered by Jessica's behavior, some of the other kids had accusing her of being an informant against the family. She had to be eliminated: "smashed on sight". In a carefully executed mission, Jessica was 'taxed'- beaten up with baseball bats- over several hours until she could barely walk. Danielle Cox was one of three street warriors chosen to then murder Jessica. As Danielle knifed her in the throat, seemingly deaf to her cries of disbelief as she choked, others danced in the excitement almost entranced by what was about to happen. Jessica was set on fire and later died at the hands of a merciless group of teenage kids who had lost all sense of reality. Many of these including Nelson eventually ended up serving life jail sentences for their part in the murder.

Denfeld's account sends a clear warning to us about the dangers that exist for our own children. Her attention to the comings and goings of street life- in all its macabre detail- makes her writing both so vivid and at the same time so disturbing. As Denfeld indicates, much of the information that allows children to get access to the street-family mentality is directly available over the Internet. Our responsibility as parents lies in ensuring that this information stays out of reach of today's youth. All God's Children has all the hallmarks of a horror story perhaps not unlike that of William Golding's Lord Of The Flies. The difference here is that the story is real and it exists right in our own towns and cities. We would do well to take note. After all, the future of our own children is at stake.

I was hesitant to get this book because I don't typically get into non-fiction. I bought it out of curiosity because I was told it was one I wouldn't be able to put down. I was taken in by the end of chapter one. It is a true and disturbing look at the real life of a group of street kids. Definitely worth your time and money.