Jonathan Kozol's books have become touchstones of the American conscience. In Ordinary Resurrections, he spends four years in the South Bronx with children who have become his friends at a badly underfunded but enlightened public school. A fascinating narrative of daily urban life, Ordinary Resurrections gives a human face to poverty and racial isolation, and provides a stirring testimony to the courage and resilience of the young. Sometimes playful, sometimes jubilantly funny, and sometimes profoundly sad, these are sensitive children—complex and morally insightful—and their ethical vitality denounces and subverts the racially charged labels that the world of grown-up expertise too frequently assigns to them.     Yet another classic case of unblinking social observation from one of the finest writers ever to work in the genre, this is a piercing discernment of right and wrong, of hope and despair—from our nation's corridors of power to its poorest city streets. " Ordinary Resurrections is a deeply moving and marvelous book. Jonathan Kozol has shared poetic and powerful stories of the poor children of Mott Haven who became a part of his life. I pray the truth and poignancy Kozol portrays here will move you to stand up for them with your votes and your voices." –Marian Wright Edelman, President, The Children's Defense Fund “Deeply moving. This is the most personal of Kozol’s efforts.” – New York Times Book Review “Warm and affectionate portraits…Kozol has written an eloquent love letter to a set of children…whom he has grown to know, cherish, and delight in. Deeply moving and beautifully written.” – Washington Post Book World “I think God finds consolation in the tiny triumphs over daily oppressions by the least noticed of us, In the plainest places. So too does Jonathan Kozol, a great man who has written another great book that is all compassion, conviction, and encouragement.” –Mario Cuomo “What a gift! A magnificent testimony to the communion of grace through the human touch.” –Fred Rogers, creator and host of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood “Kozol’s authenticity has not diminished with time, nor has his power to put a human face on Northern urban segregation.” – Library Journal “Kozol retains his anger and contempt at the city’s neglect of his small friends, but he takes a moment here to marvel at their silliness and sorrows, gentleness and bravery.” – Booklist, starred review “A persistent voice of conscience…His sensitive profiles highlight these kids’ resilience, quiet tenacity, eagerness to learn and high spirits, as well as the teachers’ remarkable dedication.” – Publishers Weekly “By demonstrating the resilience of children in a meditative and measured voice, Kozol quietly intensified the indictment he has made in previous books of the inequalities that jeopardize the growth of children in our poorest neighborhoods. Ordinary Resurrections is a human work of the spirit that holds up a candle in a dark time.”—Henry Mayer, author of All on Fire “Acutely observed, utterly unsentimental…and heartbreakingly beautiful.” –Frederick Buechner, author of The Eyes of the Heart “What a wonderful book! I have devoured it—replete with the laughter, tears, and wise insights that all of Jonathan’s books produce…I cannot tell you how moved and touched I was.” –Rabbi David Saperstein, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism JONATHAN KOZOL received the National Book Award in Science, Philosophy, and Religion for Death at an Early Age , the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Rachel and Her Children , and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Amazing Grace . He lives in the village of Byfield, Massachusetts. Elio is seven and a half years old. A picture of him taken near the doorway of the kitchen on the first floor of St. Ann's shows a light-brown child with a head shaped like an olive and a small stuffed rabbit under his right arm. He's almost smiling in the picture. It's a careful look and it conveys some of the tension that is present in his eyes on days when he's been struggling to keep his spirits up. It's not a gloomy look, however; I have other photographs in which he looks as if he's close to breaking out in tears, but this one's balanced about halfway between cheerfulness and something like the vaguest sense of fear. If you studied it a while and were in an optimistic mood you might finally decide it was the picture of a child who is somewhat timid, almost happy, and attempting to be brave. Fred Rogers took the photograph. He was in New York to do something for PBS and told me he would like to meet the children at the afterschool. We went together on the subway to Brook Avenue, walked to a local school to talk with kindergarten children there, and found our way to St. Ann's Church at three o'clock. He and Elio became acquainted with each other very fast. Elio is like that. He makes friends with grown-ups easily. He isn't a distrustful boy; nor is he prematurely worldly-wise, as man