Random House New Releases - Social Science - Children's Studies

Reign of Error by Diane Ravitch

2013-09-17T00:30:00-05:00

Reign of Error The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools
Written by Diane Ravitch

Hardcover, 416 pages | Knopf | Education - Educational Policy & Reform - Federal Legislation; Education - Aims & Objectives; Social Science - Children's Studies | $27.95 | 978-0-385-35088-4 (0-385-35088-0)

From the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education, "whistleblower extraordinaire" (The Wall Street Journal), one of the foremost authorities on education and the history of education in the United States, author of the best-selling The Death and Life of the Great American School System; The Language Police ("Impassioned . . . Fiercely argued . . . Every bit as alarming as it is illuminating" --The New York Times); and the now-classic Great School Wars: A History of the New York City Public Schools--an incisive, comprehensive look at today's American public schools that argues persuasively against those who claim our public school system is broken, beyond repair, and obsolete; an impassioned but reasoned call to stop the rising "privatization movement" draining students--and funding--from our public schools, a book that puts forth a detailed plan of what needs to happen to schools and with public policy to insure the survival of this American institution so basic to our democracy.

In Reign of Error, Ravitch makes clear that, contrary to the statements being made about disastrous public school test scores and graduation rates, these figures are the highest they've ever been in history--and that dropout rates are at their lowest, this according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a no-stakes test for children of all races.

Ravitch puts forth a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of what can be done to preserve public school education, making clear what is right with our education system, how policy makers are failing to address the root causes of educational failure, and discussing in detail how to fix these problems.

Reign of Error by Diane Ravitch

2013-09-17T00:30:00-05:00

Reign of Error The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools
Written by Diane Ravitch

eBook, 416 pages | Knopf | Education - Educational Policy & Reform - Federal Legislation; Education - Aims & Objectives; Social Science - Children's Studies | $14.99 | 978-0-385-35089-1 (0-385-35089-9)

Fire in the Ashes by Jonathan Kozol

2013-09-03T00:30:00-05:00

Fire in the Ashes Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America
Written by Jonathan Kozol

Trade Paperback, 368 pages | Broadway | Social Science - Sociology - Urban; Social Science - Children's Studies; Social Science - Poverty | $16.00 | 978-1-4000-5247-9 (1-4000-5247-5)

   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 by Jonathan Kozol

2012-08-28T00:30:00-05:00

Fire in the Ashes Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America
Written by Jonathan Kozol

eBook, 368 pages | Crown | Social Science - Sociology - Urban; Social Science - Children's Studies; Social Science - Poverty | $13.99 | 978-0-7704-3595-0 (0-7704-3595-5)

Fire in the Ashes by Jonathan Kozol

2012-08-28T00:30:00-05:00

Fire in the Ashes Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America
Written by Jonathan Kozol

Hardcover, 368 pages | Crown | Social Science - Sociology - Urban; Social Science - Children's Studies; Social Science - Poverty | $27.00 | 978-1-4000-5246-2 (1-4000-5246-7)

Fire in the Ashes by Keythe Farley

2012-08-28T00:30:00-05:00

Fire in the Ashes Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America
Written by Jonathan Kozol
Read by Keythe Farley

Unabridged Compact Disc | Random House Audio | Social Science - Sociology - Urban; Social Science - Children's Studies; Social Science - Poverty | $40.00 | 978-0-449-01259-8 (0-449-01259-X)

Fire in the Ashes by Keythe Farley

2012-08-28T00:30:00-05:00

Fire in the Ashes Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America
Written by Jonathan Kozol
Read by Keythe Farley

Unabridged Audiobook Download | Random House Audio | Social Science - Sociology - Urban; Social Science - Children's Studies; Social Science - Poverty | $22.50 | 978-0-449-01260-4 (0-449-01260-3)

The Lost Children of Wilder by Nina Bernstein

2011-03-23T00:30:00-05:00

The Lost Children of Wilder The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care
Written by Nina Bernstein

eBook, 496 pages | Vintage | Social Science - Social Classes; Social Science - Children's Studies | $14.99 | 978-0-307-78774-3 (0-307-78774-5)

In 1973 Marcia Lowry, a young civil liberties attorney, filed a controversial class-action suit that would come to be known as Wilder, which challenged New York City’s operation of its foster-care system. Lowry’s contention was that the system failed the children it was meant to help because it placed them according to creed and convenience, not according to need. The plaintiff was thirteen-year-old Shirley Wilder, an abused runaway whose childhood had been shaped by the system’s inequities. Within a year Shirley would give birth to a son and relinquish him to the same failing system.

Seventeen years later, with Wilder still controversial and still in court, Nina Bernstein tried to find out what had happened to Shirley and her baby. She was told by child-welfare officials that Shirley had disappeared and that her son was one of thousands of anonymous children whose circumstances are concealed by the veil of confidentiality that hides foster care from public scrutiny. But Bernstein persevered.

The Lost Children of Wilder gives us, in galvanizing and compulsively readable detail, the full history of a case that reveals the racial, religious, and political fault lines in our child-welfare system, and lays bare the fundamental contradiction at the heart of our well-intended efforts to sever the destiny of needy children from the fate of their parents. Bernstein takes us behind the scenes of far-reaching legal and legislative battles, at the same time as she traces, in heartbreaking counterpoint, the consequences as they are played out in the life of Shirley’s son, Lamont. His terrifying journey through the system has produced a man with deep emotional wounds, a stifled yearning for family, and a son growing up in the system’s shadow.

In recounting the failure of the promise of benevolence, The Lost Children of Wilder makes clear how welfare reform can also damage its
intended beneficiaries. A landmark achievement of investigative reporting and a tour de force of social observation, this book will haunt every reader who cares about the needs of children.

From the Hardcover edition.

Until It Hurts by Mark Hyman

2010-03-01T00:30:00-05:00

Until It Hurts America's Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids
Written by Mark Hyman

Trade Paperback, 160 pages | Beacon Press | Sports & Recreation; Social Science - Children's Studies; Family & Relationships - Parenting | $16.00 | 978-0-8070-2119-4 (0-8070-2119-9)

Every year, more than 3.5 million children under age fifteen require medical treatment for sports injuries, nearly half of which are the result of simple overuse. Journalist Mark Hyman investigates the evolution of youth sports from mere games to full-on quests to turn children into tomorrow's superstar athletes by pushing them beyond physical and emotional limits. Opening up a crucial discussion about the perils of youth sports culture today, Hyman offers the solutions answers we need.

Until It Hurts by Mark Hyman

2009-04-01T00:30:00-05:00

Until It Hurts America's Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids
Written by Mark Hyman

Hardcover, 160 pages | Beacon Press | Sports & Recreation; Social Science - Children's Studies; Family & Relationships - Parenting | $23.95 | 978-0-8070-2118-7 (0-8070-2118-0)

Near the end of a long season, fourteen-year-old baseball pitcher Ben Hyman approached his father with disappointing, if not surprising, news: his pitching shoulder was tired. With each throw to home plate, he felt a twinge in his still maturing arm. Any doctor would have advised the young boy to take off the rest of the season. Author Mark Hyman sent his son out to pitch the next game. After all, it was play-off time.

Stories like these are not uncommon. Over the last seventy-five years, adults have staged a hostile takeover of kids' sports. In 2003 alone, more than 3.5 million children under age fifteen required medical treatment for sports injuries, nearly half of which were the result of simple overuse. The quest to turn children into tomorrow's superstar athletes has often led adults to push them beyond physical and emotional limits.

In Until It Hurts, journalist, coach, and sports dad Mark Hyman explores how youth sports reached this problematic state. His investigation takes him from the Little League World Series in Pennsylvania to a prestigious Chicago soccer club, from adolescent golf and tennis superstars in Atlanta to California volleyball players. He interviews dozens of children, parents, coaches, psychologists, surgeons, sports medicine specialists, and former professional athletes. He speaks at length with Whitney Phelps, Michael's older sister; retraces the story of A Very Young Gymnast, and its subject, Torrance York; and tells the saga of the Castle High School girls' basketball team of Evansville, Indiana, which in 2005 lost three-fifths of its lineup to ACL injuries. Along the way, Hyman hears numerous stories: about a mother who left her fifteen-year-old daughter at an interstate exit after a heated exchange over her performance during a soccer game, about a coach who ordered preteens to swim laps in three-hour shifts for twenty-four hours.

Hyman's exploration leads him to examine the history of youth sports in our country and how it's evolved, particularly with the increasing involvement of girls and much more proactive participation of parents. With its unique multiple perspective-of history, of reporting, and of personal experience-this book delves deep into the complicated issue of sports for children, and opens up a much-needed discussion about the perils of youth sports culture today. Hyman focuses not only on the unfortunate cases of overzealous parents and overly ambitious kids, but also on how positive change can be made, and concludes by shining a spotlight on some inspirational parents and model sports programs, giving hope that the current destructive cycle can be broken.

Do Not Give Way To Evil by Lisa Kahane

2008-07-13T00:30:00-05:00

Do Not Give Way To Evil Photographs of the South Bronx, 1979-1987
Photographed by Lisa Kahane

Hardcover, 144 pages | powerHouse Books | Photography - Photo Essays; Photography - Portraits; Social Science - Children's Studies | $35.00 | 978-1-57687-432-5 (1-57687-432-X)

The Bronx had almost stopped burning by 1979. The intensity and extent of the devastation permeated the landscape. It was an awesome mess, not just another neighborhood, but another realm, visible but incomprehensible. The Bronx came undone in a confluence of unfortunate circumstances: the life cycle of community, rampant city planning, economic change, racism, poverty, failed hopes, drugs, crime, abandonment, counterproductive government response. It was destroyed for profit. The entire story has yet to be told.

A friend suggested to photographer Lisa Kahane that she record it for a time when it would be a memory, which was then impossible to imagine. The ruins of the immediate past overwhelmed any idea of a future. Ironically, Kahane had a good time in the Bronx. People smiled and said, “Throw me a photo!” Few objected to having their picture taken and no one tried to take her camera away. They wanted their story told. Any discomfort the camera might inflict was nothing compared to what they’d endured.

The result, Do No Give Way to Evil: Photographs of the South Bronx, 1979–1987, is an extraordinary document of devastation and rejuvenation, as Kahane records the first seeds of rebuilding. Throughout this desolate world, the people live alongside abandoned buildings and debris-strewn lots, carrying on their business with civic pride. Though the buildings may be ghosts of their former selves, the spirit of the people holds strong.

With an essay by Peter Frank and text by the photographer, John Ahearn, CRASH, DAZE, Jane Dickson, Stefan Eins, John Fekner, Joe Lewis, SHARP, Rigoberto Torres.

Juvenile by Nell Bernstein

2004-01-01T00:30:00-05:00

Juvenile
Photographed by Joseph Rodriguez
Introduction by Nell Bernstein

Hardcover, 160 pages | powerHouse Books | Photography - Photo Essays; Social Science - Penology; Social Science - Children's Studies | $29.95 | 978-1-57687-138-6 (1-57687-138-X)

"Well done, haunting, and thorough."
—CNN NewsNight with Aaron Brown

In 1989, juvenile courts handed 1.2 million delinquency cases. A decade later, this number had risen 44 percent, to 1.8 million. During this same period the violent-crime index dropped for juveniles. Today, there are more than 100,000 young people behind bars in the United States, 14,000 of them housed in adult jails or prisons. Two thirds of these are people of color, though minority youths account for one third of the entire juvenile population. Most of the incarcerated are boys, but the number of female inmates is rising at nearly three times the rate for that of males. Each year, about 11,000 detainees try to kill themselves.

For his second powerHouse Books monograph, Juvenile, photographer Joseph Rodríguez spent several years following several youths, from arrest, counseling, trial adjudication, and incarceration, to release, probation, house arrest, group homes, and the search for employment and meaning in their lives. Additionally, Rodríguez documented some of the people who work in the juvenile justice system: judges, public defenders, district attorneys, probation officers, and social workers. Many of these kids face great obstacles, including a criminal justice system with decreasing political interest in offering second chances. Through the power of his photographs, Rodríguez shows us how these kids struggle and how they fight to change their lives.

“A couple of years ago my mother was cleaning out my old room when she came across some letters I had written back in the early 70s while I was incarcerated on Rikers Island. They were the usual prison letters of remorse and forgiveness. I look at these letters now and remember how I felt as a young man struggling to find my way. Coming out of prison was a daunting experience. I had been placed on probation for drug possession. There was little support for my transition back into society—the only advice my probation officer gave me was: ‘You better get a job.’ But I did get a second chance; I found photography. Eventually I moved out of the community where I had gotten into trouble, educated myself, and became a productive member of society. These experiences became my motivation for this documentary project.”
—Joseph Rodríguez

The Lost Children of Wilder by Nina Bernstein

2002-02-05T00:30:00-05:00

The Lost Children of Wilder The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care
Written by Nina Bernstein

Trade Paperback, 496 pages | Vintage | Social Science - Social Classes; Social Science - Children's Studies | $17.00 | 978-0-679-75834-1 (0-679-75834-8)

IIn 1973, a young ACLU attorney filed a controversial class-action lawsuit that challenged New York City’s operation of its foster-care system. The plaintiff was an abused runaway named Shirley Wilder who had suffered from the system’s inequities. Wilder, as the case came to be known, was waged for two and a half decades, becoming a battleground for the conflicts of race, religion, and politics that shape America’s child-welfare system.

The Lost Children of Wilder gives us the galvanizing history of this landmark case and the personal story at its core. Nina Bernstein takes us behind the scenes of far-reaching legal and legislative battles, but she also traces the life of Shirley Wilder and her son, Lamont, born when Shirley was only fourteen and relinquished to the very system being challenged in her name. Bernstein’s account of Shirley and Lamont’s struggles captures the heartbreaking consequences of the child welfare system’s best intentions and deepest flaws. In the tradition of There Are No Children Here, this is a major achievement of investigative journalism and a tour de force of social observation, a gripping book that will haunt every reader who cares about the needs of children.

The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren by Marina Warner

2000-08-31T00:30:00-05:00

The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren
Written by Iona Opie and Peter Opie
Introduction by Marina Warner

Trade Paperback, 488 pages | NYRB Classics | Social Science - Children's Studies; Social Science - Anth/Cultural; Literary Criticism & Collections - Children's Literature | $18.95 | 978-0-940322-69-1 (0-940322-69-2)

First published in 1959, Iona and Peter Opie's The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren is a pathbreaking work of scholarship that is also a splendid and enduring work of literature. Going outside the nursery, with its assortment of parent-approved entertainments, to observe and investigate the day-to-day creative intelligence and activities of children, the Opies bring to life the rites and rhymes, jokes and jeers, laws, games, and secret spells of what has been called "the greatest of savage tribes, and the only one which shows no signs of dying out."

The Geography of Childhood by Stephen Trimble

1995-04-30T00:30:00-05:00

The Geography of Childhood Why Children Need Wild Places
Written by Gary Nabhan and Stephen Trimble

Trade Paperback, 216 pages | Beacon Press | Social Science - Children's Studies; Nature; Family & Relationships - Child Development | $20.00 | 978-0-8070-8525-7 (0-8070-8525-1)

Random House New Releases - Social Science - Children's Studies

Reign of Error by Diane Ravitch

Reign of Error The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public SchoolsWritten by Diane Ravitch

Reign of Error by Diane Ravitch

Reign of Error The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public SchoolsWritten by Diane Ravitch

Fire in the Ashes by Jonathan Kozol

Fire in the Ashes Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in AmericaWritten by Jonathan Kozol

Fire in the Ashes by Jonathan Kozol

Fire in the Ashes Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in AmericaWritten by Jonathan Kozol

Fire in the Ashes by Jonathan Kozol

Fire in the Ashes Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in AmericaWritten by Jonathan Kozol

Fire in the Ashes by Keythe Farley

Fire in the Ashes Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in AmericaWritten by Jonathan Kozol Read by Keythe Farley

Fire in the Ashes by Keythe Farley

Fire in the Ashes Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in AmericaWritten by Jonathan Kozol Read by Keythe Farley

The Lost Children of Wilder by Nina Bernstein

The Lost Children of Wilder The Epic Struggle to Change Foster CareWritten by Nina Bernstein

Until It Hurts by Mark Hyman

Until It Hurts America's Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our KidsWritten by Mark Hyman

Until It Hurts by Mark Hyman

Until It Hurts America's Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our KidsWritten by Mark Hyman

Do Not Give Way To Evil by Lisa Kahane

Do Not Give Way To Evil Photographs of the South Bronx, 1979-1987Photographed by Lisa Kahane

Juvenile by Nell Bernstein

Juvenile Photographed by Joseph Rodriguez Introduction by Nell Bernstein

The Lost Children of Wilder by Nina Bernstein

The Lost Children of Wilder The Epic Struggle to Change Foster CareWritten by Nina Bernstein

The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren by Marina Warner

The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren Written by Iona Opie and Peter Opie Introduction by Marina Warner

The Geography of Childhood by Stephen Trimble

The Geography of Childhood Why Children Need Wild PlacesWritten by Gary Nabhan and Stephen Trimble

Reign of Error The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools
Written by Diane Ravitch

Reign of Error The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools
Written by Diane Ravitch

Fire in the Ashes Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America
Written by Jonathan Kozol

Fire in the Ashes Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America
Written by Jonathan Kozol

Fire in the Ashes Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America
Written by Jonathan Kozol

Fire in the Ashes Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America
Written by Jonathan Kozol
Read by Keythe Farley

Fire in the Ashes Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America
Written by Jonathan Kozol
Read by Keythe Farley

The Lost Children of Wilder The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care
Written by Nina Bernstein

Until It Hurts America's Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids
Written by Mark Hyman

Until It Hurts America's Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids
Written by Mark Hyman

Do Not Give Way To Evil Photographs of the South Bronx, 1979-1987
Photographed by Lisa Kahane

Juvenile
Photographed by Joseph Rodriguez
Introduction by Nell Bernstein

The Lost Children of Wilder The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care
Written by Nina Bernstein

The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren
Written by Iona Opie and Peter Opie
Introduction by Marina Warner

The Geography of Childhood Why Children Need Wild Places
Written by Gary Nabhan and Stephen Trimble