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 enlarge | Author: Paul Tough
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $14.97
You Save: $11.03 (42%)
New (35) Used (8) from $14.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 906
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0618569898
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.748097471
EAN: 9780618569892
ASIN: 0618569898
Publication Date: August 12, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW, IN-HOUSE READY TO SHIP!!! NOT A BARGAIN, REMAINDER OR BOOKCLUB BOOK!!! WE ARE A 5 STAR SELLER.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Best Nonfiction Book I've Read in Years November 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I find it hard to review this book without parroting some of the blurbs on the back cover, from the likes of Bill Clinton and Ira Glass.Paul Tough's exploration of the Harlem Children's Zone and Geoffrey Canada's work reads like an uplifting, thought-provoking novel. This should be required reading for anyone interested in improving the situation in the US around poverty, education, race, and urban policy. Reading this book is particularly important now, as President-Elect Obama has pledged to expand the HCZ model to 20 cities around the country. This is a thoughtful, realistic, in-depth exploration of some of the most risky and effective programs out there.
Inspiring Geoffrey Canada November 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I heard about this book from NPR's This American Life. Geoffrey Canada is inspiring. I look forward to seeing how his assembly-line concept performs over the long term. Good read for anyone who's interested in addressing the root of a problem, not just a panacea.
Detailed, Provocative, and Important November 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Graduation from four year college is the ultimate goal for the kids of the Harlem Children's Zone. In Harlem, this lofty goal often requires overcoming intergenerational poverty, a community that does not always value education, and families rife with questionable parenting tactics and frequent run-ins with the law.
--Detailed--
This kind of goal could not even begin to be accomplished if the attitude was not: "Whatever it Takes." This book is a great read. It intersperses candid character portraits with hard statistics about poverty. Even if you were not a great writer you could make a worthy book by just having spent the five years studying what Paul Tough studied. But Tough is a good writer who illuminates historical and philosophical perspectives, while keeping the story centered around what is actually happening in Harlem right now.
The book concentrates on Geoffrey Canada, a the charismatic leader of the Harlem Children's Zone. Tough is a Canada fan, and most likely for good reasons. Canada is tireless, his heart is in the right place, he has big and concrete plans, and he is likable. Not to take away from the book (whose subtitle reads: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America), but was it really necessary to give as much time in the book to his character? He is obviously instrumental in the Harlem Children's Zone, but the book sometimes reads like a biography of a great person instead of about a program to transform a neighborhood.
--Provocative--
I would have liked to hear more about the controversial and perennially hot educational debates that surely surround the Harlem Children's Zone. How does Canada's idea that the Children's Zone will only work via charter schools fit in with our society's great ideal to give all students equal educational opportunity? Should charter schools replace all traditional schools in areas that cry out to have the cycle of poverty broken? What do critics of standardized testing have to say about the goals of the Children's Zone schools (whose officials are preoccupied with scores)?
Nonetheless, it is testimony to the richness of the book that these questions can even get formulated with such detail.
--Important--
The ultimate goal of the Zone might even be more grand than putting kids through college -- it is to enlarge the possibilities of all people who live in or close to poverty.
This is a superb book that lays out the fundamentals of a program that holds great promise to bring about needed change. "Whatever it Takes" puts real stories, great perspective, and hope into the hands of readers all across the political spectrum. Armed with this book America is one step closer to resolving the issues of inequality and poverty that plague our country.
Inspiring Story November 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Tough's account of Promise Academy and Canada's vision tugs at your heartstrings. It's an inspiring story that left me wondering if such a model could work in our multicultural city.
 Inspirational October 31, 2008
This is a thought-provoking and inspirational account of big and noble ideas put into action. We are not spared descriptions of the difficulties and realities involved - nothing seems exaggerated or glossed over. Mr. Canada's struggle is touchingly portrayed. I do hope that we can count on Barack Obama to replicate this program in 20 cities if he is indeed elected next week. A must read for anyone invested in children and their education.
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