In this powerful and culminating work about a group of inner-city children he has known for many years, Jonathan Kozol returns to the scene of his prize-winning books Rachel and Her Children and Amazing Grace, and to the children he has vividly portrayed, to share with us their fascinating journeys and unexpected victories as they grow into adulthood.
For nearly fifty years Jonathan has pricked the conscience of his readers by laying bare the savage inequalities inflicted upon children for no reason but the accident of being born to poverty within a wealthy nation. A winner of the National Book Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, and countless other honors, he has persistently crossed the lines of class and race, first as a teacher, then as the author of tender and heart-breaking books about the children he has called “the outcasts of our nation’s ingenuity.” But Jonathan is not a distant and detached reporter. His own life has been radically transformed by the children who have trusted and befriended him.
Never has this intimate acquaintance with his subjects been more apparent, or more stirring, than in Fire in the Ashes, as Jonathan tells the stories of young men and women who have come of age in one of the most destitute communities of the United States. Some of them never do recover from the battering they undergo in their early years, but many more battle back with fierce and, often, jubilant determination to overcome the formidable obstacles they face. As we watch these glorious children grow into the fullness of a healthy and contributive maturity, they ignite a flame of hope, not only for themselves, but for our society.
The urgent issues that confront our urban schools – a devastating race-gap, a pathological regime of obsessive testing and drilling students for exams instead of giving them the rich curriculum that excites a love of learning – are interwoven through these stories. Why certain children rise above it all, graduate from high school and do well in college, while others are defeated by the time they enter adolescence, lies at the essence of this work.
Jonathan Kozol is the author of Death at an Early Age, Savage Inequalities, and other books on children and their education. He has been called “today’s most eloquent spokesman for America’s disenfranchised.” But he believes young people speak most eloquently for themselves; and in this book, so full of the vitality and spontaneity of youth, we hear their testimony.
Fire in the Ashes
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Book Description
Best Value
Editorial Reviews
Review
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2012
A Booklist 2012 Editor’s Choice Selection
“Kozol’s storytelling gifts shine through: with simple anecdotes that show the soulful humor, compassion, and wisdom that kindles progress among the survivors.” – Christian Science Monitor
“Fire in the Ashes isn’t some saccharine account of how disadvantaged youth get a break and then triumph over adversity. Instead, Kozol shows us the very real costs of putting children in bad schools….Throughout, Kozol connects with these kids and young adults on a human level, refusing to step on to some political soapbox.” – Boston Globe
“As I read Fire in the Ashes and thought about Kozol's admirably principled commitment to chronicling the lives of the urban poor, I marveled at his staying power. His tone, too, has been consistent for almost 50 years – cool, smart, empathetic and, despite all the evidence to rebut his convictions, full of hope….Kozol's brilliant body of work shines a light not merely on the lives of the poor, but also into the dark night of the American soul.” – Portland Oregonian
“Check out this magnificent book, because I think you’ll like it. For anyone [who] cares about his fellow human, Fire in the Ashes burns bright.” – Savannah Morning News
“Engrossing chronicle of lives blighted and redeemed....Eschewing social science jargon and deploying extraordinary powers of observation and empathy, Kozol crafts dense, novelistic character studies that reveal the interplay between individual personality and the chaos of impoverished circumstances. Like a latter-day Dickens (but without the melodrama), he gives us another powerful indictment of America's treatment of the poor.” – Publisher's Weekly (starred)
“In this engaging, illuminating, often moving book, [Kozol] recounts the lives of poor black and Latino children—many now close friends—who once lived in Manhattan’s Martinique Hotel….Cleareyed, compassionate and hopeful.”
– Kirkus Reviews (starred)
“An engaging look at the broader social implications of ignoring poverty as well as a very personal look at individuals struggling to overcome it.” - Booklist (starred)
“Jonathan Kozol is America’s premier chronicler of life among the children of societal neglect. And Fire in the Ashes may be his best book yet . . . . Kozol does not just write about these people; he becomes an intimate part of their lives, sharing their triumphs, defeats, and, too often, mourning their deaths . . . . If you care about the children who are the future of America, this is a book you must read.”
—Ellis Cose, author of The End of Anger and The Rage of a Privileged Class
“Despite the steep odds stacked against these children—which too many cannot overcome—this is a hopeful book thanks to those who do. The incredible resilience, grit and grace of children like Pineapple are a call to urgent action.”
—Marian Wright Edelman, President, Children’s Defense Fund
“Kozol has a knack for describing his relationships with poverty-stricken children with a sympathy that is so straightforward one cannot indulge in pity. Fire in the Ashes is a wonderful book. I couldn’t put it down.”
—Deborah Meier, author of In Schools We Trust and The Power of Their Ideas
“Fire in the Ashes is a terrific book—powerful, insightful, and heartbreaking.”
—David Berliner, author of The Manufactured Crisis
A Booklist 2012 Editor’s Choice Selection
“Kozol’s storytelling gifts shine through: with simple anecdotes that show the soulful humor, compassion, and wisdom that kindles progress among the survivors.” – Christian Science Monitor
“Fire in the Ashes isn’t some saccharine account of how disadvantaged youth get a break and then triumph over adversity. Instead, Kozol shows us the very real costs of putting children in bad schools….Throughout, Kozol connects with these kids and young adults on a human level, refusing to step on to some political soapbox.” – Boston Globe
“As I read Fire in the Ashes and thought about Kozol's admirably principled commitment to chronicling the lives of the urban poor, I marveled at his staying power. His tone, too, has been consistent for almost 50 years – cool, smart, empathetic and, despite all the evidence to rebut his convictions, full of hope….Kozol's brilliant body of work shines a light not merely on the lives of the poor, but also into the dark night of the American soul.” – Portland Oregonian
“Check out this magnificent book, because I think you’ll like it. For anyone [who] cares about his fellow human, Fire in the Ashes burns bright.” – Savannah Morning News
“Engrossing chronicle of lives blighted and redeemed....Eschewing social science jargon and deploying extraordinary powers of observation and empathy, Kozol crafts dense, novelistic character studies that reveal the interplay between individual personality and the chaos of impoverished circumstances. Like a latter-day Dickens (but without the melodrama), he gives us another powerful indictment of America's treatment of the poor.” – Publisher's Weekly (starred)
“In this engaging, illuminating, often moving book, [Kozol] recounts the lives of poor black and Latino children—many now close friends—who once lived in Manhattan’s Martinique Hotel….Cleareyed, compassionate and hopeful.”
– Kirkus Reviews (starred)
“An engaging look at the broader social implications of ignoring poverty as well as a very personal look at individuals struggling to overcome it.” - Booklist (starred)
“Jonathan Kozol is America’s premier chronicler of life among the children of societal neglect. And Fire in the Ashes may be his best book yet . . . . Kozol does not just write about these people; he becomes an intimate part of their lives, sharing their triumphs, defeats, and, too often, mourning their deaths . . . . If you care about the children who are the future of America, this is a book you must read.”
—Ellis Cose, author of The End of Anger and The Rage of a Privileged Class
“Despite the steep odds stacked against these children—which too many cannot overcome—this is a hopeful book thanks to those who do. The incredible resilience, grit and grace of children like Pineapple are a call to urgent action.”
—Marian Wright Edelman, President, Children’s Defense Fund
“Kozol has a knack for describing his relationships with poverty-stricken children with a sympathy that is so straightforward one cannot indulge in pity. Fire in the Ashes is a wonderful book. I couldn’t put it down.”
—Deborah Meier, author of In Schools We Trust and The Power of Their Ideas
“Fire in the Ashes is a terrific book—powerful, insightful, and heartbreaking.”
—David Berliner, author of The Manufactured Crisis
About the Author
Jonathan Kozol is the National Book Award-winning author of Savage Inequalities, Death at an Early Age, The Shame of the Nation, and Amazing Grace. He has been working with children in inner-city schools for nearly fifty years.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
In this fine book, Jonathan Kozol revisits children whose lives he has been involved with for many years. All have some connection to St. Ann's church in the Bronx and the services offered there. Kozol has written extensively about these children over the years, and been very involved in their lives. This book tells the next step of their stories.
In some ways, this is a wondefully hopeful book. Several of the children have finished college, others are living meaningful and service-oriented lives. Many have children of their own, and are good parents. However, in other ways, the book can lead to despair, in thinking of all these children had to endure in their lives, and when you think about the fact that their neighborhood is still full of failing schools and that America still seems to care little for its poor.
The main message here, as Kozol points out, is that the children that succeeded, although credit must be given to all of them for being extraordinary people, had help. They met someone at a crucial point in their life that gave them a leg up, a ear to listen to, help getting into the right school. Some of them had families that went above and beyond to do all they could to help them succeed. But none of them succeeded in a vacuum. We all need to take responsibility to help where we can, either within our own families or by helping the greater community. The cost of not doing this is high---prison, drug addiction, death.
I thank Jonathan Kozol for his life of caring.
In some ways, this is a wondefully hopeful book. Several of the children have finished college, others are living meaningful and service-oriented lives. Many have children of their own, and are good parents. However, in other ways, the book can lead to despair, in thinking of all these children had to endure in their lives, and when you think about the fact that their neighborhood is still full of failing schools and that America still seems to care little for its poor.
The main message here, as Kozol points out, is that the children that succeeded, although credit must be given to all of them for being extraordinary people, had help. They met someone at a crucial point in their life that gave them a leg up, a ear to listen to, help getting into the right school. Some of them had families that went above and beyond to do all they could to help them succeed. But none of them succeeded in a vacuum. We all need to take responsibility to help where we can, either within our own families or by helping the greater community. The cost of not doing this is high---prison, drug addiction, death.
I thank Jonathan Kozol for his life of caring.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Before reading this book I had never heard of Jonathan Kozol and therefore am not really all that familiar with his work and the people with whom he has worked. Still, "Fire in the Ashes" managed to be an interesting read that rather had me itching to get back into the world of education.
Each chapter focuses on a particular child, and Kozol gives an account of that child's development or lack thereof over the years. The first few chapters are not the happiest, but serves as a decent comparision for the second portion of the book in which the success stories are presented.
The accounts are quite thorough and provided enlightening summaries of these kids' lives to the present--though Kozol's attention to detail and conversation somehow left everything, in my view, surprisingly impersonal. I do believe it would be unprofessional to create a work dedicated to tugging at heartstrings and tear ducts, but I still feel this is the type of book that should get me caring about the individuals. I did find myself much more educated and concerned about the situations of inner-city kids and their schools, but I failed to connect with anyone presented. A big part of me commends Kozol's just-the-facts approach with its scattered events and conversations, but it did leave me feeling rather neutral on the individuals.
This, however, does not take away from the enlightening importance of this book as it works to open eyes to unforunate situations. One may or may not agree with Kozol's politics and social views (which I feel he keeps respectfully in the background) but the book does lay out the undeniable situation at hand.
Personal taste is what fuels my recommendations here.... Read more ›
Each chapter focuses on a particular child, and Kozol gives an account of that child's development or lack thereof over the years. The first few chapters are not the happiest, but serves as a decent comparision for the second portion of the book in which the success stories are presented.
The accounts are quite thorough and provided enlightening summaries of these kids' lives to the present--though Kozol's attention to detail and conversation somehow left everything, in my view, surprisingly impersonal. I do believe it would be unprofessional to create a work dedicated to tugging at heartstrings and tear ducts, but I still feel this is the type of book that should get me caring about the individuals. I did find myself much more educated and concerned about the situations of inner-city kids and their schools, but I failed to connect with anyone presented. A big part of me commends Kozol's just-the-facts approach with its scattered events and conversations, but it did leave me feeling rather neutral on the individuals.
This, however, does not take away from the enlightening importance of this book as it works to open eyes to unforunate situations. One may or may not agree with Kozol's politics and social views (which I feel he keeps respectfully in the background) but the book does lay out the undeniable situation at hand.
Personal taste is what fuels my recommendations here.... Read more ›
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
An often depressing, sometimes uplifting, account of running in quicksand
July 13, 2012
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This book should make any reader angry and frustrated toward the criminally-negligent "public education" system that has basically failed/is failing inner city children for decades.
One problem is that it preaches to the converted - I was already impotently angry, and now I'm a little angrier and more cynical, but it seems like the people who could effect some change never bother to read accounts like this, or try to empathize with the situation at all.
To give some comparison - Post Traumatic Stress is legitimately in the news because of so many soldiers affected after 11 years of war and many multiple year-long deployments. The children - the CHILDREN - that Kozol writes about are growing up for their entire lives in hellish, crime-ridden environments not too far removed from war zones, and somehow they are expected to go to school and pass some absurd standardized test that's supposed to prove something. What they experience is the definition of PTSD - minus the "post" part - and it's happening when they're 7,8,9 years old, right through their teenage years.
It's a grotesque obscenity. Really, we shouldn't take ourselves seriously as a country when we sit on our hands and let this happen.
Kozol helps out a lot of the kids he met and wrote about - he quotes emails where they thank him for laptops that he helped provide them. He's doing the right thing - as he points out in an endnote, these children gave him a lot of their time, and they deserve compensation. But, this does feed into America's "winning the lottery" culture. Because these specific children were lucky enough to meet and engage Kozol, they're the ones with laptops, and inroads to better schools and opportunities.... Read more ›
One problem is that it preaches to the converted - I was already impotently angry, and now I'm a little angrier and more cynical, but it seems like the people who could effect some change never bother to read accounts like this, or try to empathize with the situation at all.
To give some comparison - Post Traumatic Stress is legitimately in the news because of so many soldiers affected after 11 years of war and many multiple year-long deployments. The children - the CHILDREN - that Kozol writes about are growing up for their entire lives in hellish, crime-ridden environments not too far removed from war zones, and somehow they are expected to go to school and pass some absurd standardized test that's supposed to prove something. What they experience is the definition of PTSD - minus the "post" part - and it's happening when they're 7,8,9 years old, right through their teenage years.
It's a grotesque obscenity. Really, we shouldn't take ourselves seriously as a country when we sit on our hands and let this happen.
Kozol helps out a lot of the kids he met and wrote about - he quotes emails where they thank him for laptops that he helped provide them. He's doing the right thing - as he points out in an endnote, these children gave him a lot of their time, and they deserve compensation. But, this does feed into America's "winning the lottery" culture. Because these specific children were lucky enough to meet and engage Kozol, they're the ones with laptops, and inroads to better schools and opportunities.... Read more ›
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fire in Ashes by Johnathon Kozol
In the pages of this book Kozol shares with his readers again a follow up on many of the children whom he has worked with from St. Anns in South Bronx, New York and P.S. 65 school. Read more
Published 12 days ago by Belynda Grays
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inspiring!!
This is truly an inspirational book which confirms, that by helping one, this can radiate to many; having a long term beneficial effect for all. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mike B
4.0 out of 5 stars
Heartbreaking, eye opening
Heartbreaking and eye opening
This book seems to be painfully frank about the unconscionable circumstances that so many people (many of them children) face in America,... Read more
This book seems to be painfully frank about the unconscionable circumstances that so many people (many of them children) face in America,... Read more
Published 2 months ago by a reader
5.0 out of 5 stars
as the government sequesters our neighborhood schools and imposes...
especially this most recent reflection on the sorry state of our schools, led further and further from the way it is supposed to be. Read more
Published 2 months ago by C. Scanlon
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Man Who Truly Loves the Poor
Jonathan Kozol is a writer, activist who not only writes books about the poor which is respectful to the subjects and the readers but speaks out on schools and the poor throughout... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lynn Ellingwood
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stirs emotion within.
Another well researched and written book by Jonathan Kozol. I read Fire in the Ashes when it was released many years ago and was delighted to see a followup on the children. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Neecy San
4.0 out of 5 stars
Touching and amazing
As a teacher, I always enjoy reading this kind of book. I love following children as they overcome and go on to be successful adults from a circumstance that others just can't... Read more
Published 4 months ago by M. Rodriguez
5.0 out of 5 stars
Satisfied customer
This book was in great condition and I received in within a few days. I bought is as a christmas gift for my son who is studing to be a teacher
Published 5 months ago by Gwen Paull
5.0 out of 5 stars
A look at Urban life in America
Before getting into this book I did not know who this author was and I half expected the book to be a clinical and sterile look at inner city life through the eyes of an... Read more
Published 5 months ago by BigStory
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Nation's Best Voice for Poor Children Otherwise Unheard
This is a superb book from the greatest conscience of poor American children, Jonathan Kozol. His voice should be heard loudly and daily across this country, for the damage being... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Susan K. O'brien
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