Book Reviews

Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope

Crown, 400 pp., $25

Jonathan Kozol has dedicated his life to the mostly forgotten children by educating them, getting to know them, and writing eloquently about them. He expressed joy for the smallest of victories in his earlier books Savage Inequalities, Rachel's Children, and Amazing Grace. Given the fact that very little has changed in the school systems he has studied over the decades, Ordinary Resurrections serves to illuminate the largely unseen miracles that abound in the most unlikely places.

After spending over 10 years in Mott Haven, the poorest section of the South Bronx, getting to know children, parents, teachers, churches, and schools, Kozol has endeared himself into the fabric of many lives. In Mott Haven, the typical family yearly income is about $10,000, "trying to sustain" is how the mothers generally express their situation, and average class size runs to 31 children for each teacher, who is paid roughly $10,000 less each year than teachers in more affluent districts. P.S. 30, the best of Mott Haven's primary schools, runs short on the most basic supplies and operates with little to no funding for a library, music, or art education because of savage cutbacks 10 years prior. It still manages to flourish that given the talent, generosity, and energy of the very special teachers who work there.

As a teacher himself, Kozol understands the demands of the classroom and conveys how very difficult it can be to simply manage a group of children, much less instruct with creativity and grace. One seemingly tireless young teacher wins Jonathan's heart with her joyful manner and, more specifically, gentle command of her students. He highlights a few beautiful moments in her classroom when she guides the children (without their knowing) from growing distraction back into order and focus. At the first sign of chaos, Mrs. Gamble rises to her feet, lifts her hands to mime playing a flute, trills a little, and soon the children, too, have risen -- eyes on her, all improvising the flute section of an orchestra until their leader places the invisible instrument back into its case and silently glides back into the lesson.

Wringing truth from a cliché, the children in these pages really do most of the teaching. Working with them for so long has heightened Kozol's sensitivity to their lessons. To illustrate, he narrates a discussion he has with a little girl about her manner of making pancakes. When she gets to the part about the "little bubbles" in the batter, she looks up and smiles. He writes, "The part about the bubbles you're supposed to look for seems so ordinary and inconsequential. Still, she took a detailed pleasure in describing that to me, and little bits of detailed pleasure are what much of life is made of for the children when they're happy, and the medicine for pain when they are not."

Ordinary Resurrections is Kozol's most optimistic book. The activist in him is evident, but his humanitarianism and rare kindness shine brightest as he delights in sharing the stories of children whose view of the world is unspoiled despite the landscape. For the first time, he puts himself in the picture. Straying from the journalistic stance of objectivity, he talks about his education and family (especially his aging parents) and answers the children's endless questions about his dog. The ordinary nature of such things is made extraordinary by a man whose aim is to exalt the life of a child; it's their future that he is unsure of. At a loss to predict the road ahead, he focuses on the innocence and generosity found in these very young people, praises their spirit, and encourages us all to do the same.