Little Chicago
Publisher
Front Street
Publication Year
2002
ISBN
9781886910720
Pages
255 pages
Genre
realism
Format
novel
Item Type
Fiction
Annotation
Little Chicago opens in the office of Children's Services, where eleven-year-old Blacky Brown is being interviewed by a social worker who is trying to determine what has happened to him. At first, Blacky's emotions are blocked, but then he reveals that he has been sexually abused by his mother's boyfriend, and is released into his mother's custody. Thus begins an alternately harrowing and hopeful story of a brave boy's attempts to come to grips with a grim reality. Mary Jane, a classmate who is similarly ostracized, tries to help Blackie, but he soon takes refuge instead in the gun that he buys.
Grade Level
6-8
Diversity Topics
Family Relationships; Single parent; Poverty; Family violence; single mother; living in poverty; poor; impoverished family; abusive father figure
Main Character
boy
Race/Ethnicities
White
Family Formation
single mother
Awards
The de Grummond Children's Literature Collection
Keywords
child abuse; emotional problems; schools; sexual abuse; child services; social worker; drug abuse
Diversity Impact
direct
STARS Citation
Rapp, Adam, "Little Chicago" (2002). Diverse Families. 1043.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/diversefamilies/1043