On the Outside Looking in: Stories from an Inner City High School - Tapa dura

The author spends a year studying New York City's West Side High School, observing the lives of the disadvantaged youths that make up its student body, and the educators who try to offer them a way out of the crime, drugs, and poverty that are endemic to their surroundings. The author observes the kids' varying ways of coping with their difficult circumstances, discussing their flirtations with involvement in gangs and drug dealing, as well as their romances, love of animals, and the experience of a group of 14 students chosen to go on a ten-week trip to work on an Israeli kibbutz. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.