Customer Reviews

At Home in the Street: Street Children of Northeast Brazil

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I bought this book to use for research for my term paper on Brazilian Street Children. Although I was already interested in this subject, I didn't really get into it until I started reading this book. It is very intriguing because it isn't just an outsider's point of view- Tobias Hecht includes numerous interviews with street children he knew well, and stories about the time he spent with these children getting to know them. He also looks at the issues concerning street children from many angles, not from a biased point-of-view, so as to make it more interesting. It's a fascinating topic and I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about this subject, even if it isn't for a term paper.

It has been said that there are two Brazils--the"firstworld" modern archipelago where the rich lived behindwalled compounds, own several houses and apartments, and buy consumer items without regard for price. The rest of the country lives in the Third World--in poverty. Anthropologist Tobias Hecht applies careful, compassionate research and study to the urban dimension of lower class life. On par with Nancy Scheper-Hughes, the book brilliantly brings the tribulations and small triumphs of homeless children to life.

It was helpful to read a non-Christian study on street children. It was definitely more sociological and anthropological than most books I've read concerning children at risk, but I appreciated the objectivity. Hecht makes few moral judgments, but paints a picture of a daily reality for street children of northeast Brazil.