Ordinary Resurrections
by Jonathan Kozol

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Book Reviews of Ordinary Resurrections

Book Review: Ordinary Resurrections: Extraordinary Victories
Summary: 5 Stars

Kozol describes his current work:

"This is a book about a group of children whom I've come to know during their early years of life, not in the infant years but in the ones just after, when they start to go to school and poke around into the world and figure out what possibilities for hope and happiness it holds. Most of these children live within a section of the South Bronx called Mott Haven which, for much of the past decade, was the nation's epicenter for the plague of pediatric and maternal AIDS and remains one of the centers of an epidemic of adult and pediatric asthma that has swept across the inner-city populations of our nation in these years."

At the end of the book's introduction, Kozol says: "I'm grateful to the priest and congregation of St. Ann's (Church - of Morrisania - Episcopalian) for giving me the privilege to share the lives of children here...But most of all I'm grateful to the children, who have been so kind and generous to me, as they have been to many people who do nothing to deserve their loyalty and love, which aren't for sale and never can be earned, and who, with bashful voices, tiny fingers, sometimes unintended humor, and wise hearts, illuminate the lives of everyone who know them."

Kozol followed the children of P.(ublic) S.(chool) 30 and the eighty children who participate St. Ann's after school program for two years. Their stories and the stories of their parents, teachers and caretakers are anything but ordinary. These children will crawl right into your heart and take up residence. It's been a long time since a book has chronicled so many real-life miracles performed on a daily basis by ordinary people who happen to posses extraordinary compassion, kindness and caring.

I challenge anyone who reads Ordinary Resurrections to remain unmoved by Pineapple's brashness, Elio's false bravado, Ariel's insight, Mother Martha (St. Ann's priest) and her dog, or Katrice's adroitness in overseeing the church's kitchen. Some of the stories are uplifting; some will break your heart.

Although the book drags a bit in the middle when Kozol attempts to explain educational philosophies in laymen's terms, he never leaves the children long enough to make the intellectual content too boring.

If there is justice for Kozol and the children of Mott Haven, this should garner a lot of attention and win awards. Words like Pulitzer, Nobel, and National Book Award will fit nicely behind the title. Ordinary Resurrections should be required reading for all teachers and the rest of the human race, too. It's that good.

Kudos to Kozol and his kids. They deserve every good thing in life!

Terry Mathews, Reviewer

Summary of Ordinary Resurrections

Kozol readily admits that he's due for a reflective moment. In his 60s, living alone, his parents seriously ill, he seeks safety in surrounding himself with children. He confesses that he's not a religious man, yet he finds himself overcoming his awkwardness with prayer, even bowing his head with the children at times. His writing in this moving account is among his most eloquent, as when he describes the gentle way in which a teacher tugs for the attention of a dreamy first-grader as if carefully unwrapping a small package that may be breakable. He captures the rhythm of the exchanges between teacher and student in a way that practically whispers to the reader. Ultimately, this is a book about healing that reveals more about the lives of children in poor neighborhoods--and Kozol--than any of his prizewinning books to date. --Jodi Mailander Farrell

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