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The moving true story of 7 young kids and their struggle to escape a life of gangs and violence.‘Eight years old. That’s when life went downhill. From eight years old nobody looked after me. I just lived on the street and made do by myself. There was no one except me and my friends.’ SimonThis is the story of Elijah (JaJa), Simon (Phat Si), ‘Bloods’, Nathan (Inch), Michael (Birdie), Byron (Ribz), and Darren (Tempman). These 7 young boys each have one thing in common – they grew up on the Angell Town estate, south London.Phat Si comes home from school one day to find his mother gone, so he takes to the streets. He’s 8 years old.JaJa looks out of his kitchen window and sees drug dealers, pimps and whores. Overwhelmed by what he sees, JaJa slowly descends from petty theft to life as a kid in a street gang.Ribz’s mother sells crack and is sent to prison. He doesn’t know who his father is but is drawn to Angell Town, knowing that his dad has an unknown number of kids living on the estate. He’s determined to find some kind of family.Street Boys tells a powerful and important true story of courage, determination and hope – of creating a family from your friends and starting again when the world seems against you.
This work investigates the systemic factors and personal trajectories that lead seven young boys from the Angell Town estate in south London into cycles of gang involvement and street life. Author Tim Pritchard utilizes extensive interviews and observational reporting to document the lived experiences of these children, framing their struggle as a search for stability and belonging in an environment defined by neglect and criminal influence.
What You Will Find
The subject matter points to a sobering, journalistic examination of urban poverty and the breakdown of traditional support structures for youth. The framing suggests an accessible yet dense sociological study that prioritizes the voices of the subjects to illustrate the complexities of life on the margins of society.
Page Count:
320
Publication Date:
2008-03-03
Publisher:
Harper Collins
ISBN-10:
0007267061
ISBN-13:
9780007267064
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