The House That Crack Built

The House That Crack Built is an excellent children's meant to help young readers get a better understanding of an environment that is overwhelming for most adults, let alone children. As long as our society is going to remain as flawed as it is (see: forever), society's youth is going to need children's literature that address real world issues that directly affect them. How useful is The Giving Tree to a child from the inner city? The House That Crack Built handles the exploration of adult themes like corruption, addiction, and violence with a lyrical sensitivity, and concludes with contact information for various organizations dedicated to helping those in need.

This story was intense in a very simple way. It read to me like poetry, or a song, with each line continuing directly from the next and adding to the list of others on the next page. I enjoyed the style, as I thought it was clever and powerful, however the content was less of a child's story and more comparative to a Grimm's brothers version of a picture book. Nonetheless, the title gives suggestion of this story's nature. It details the growing of coca plants, their harvest as cocaine, and the affect on the city and its citizens that are users, or are the products of users. I felt that much more could have been said, but knew the weight was meant to be carried in it having said less. Overall very good read, would recommend in an upper show more elementary or high school classroom as the content is more for a mature audience. show less

What the heck did I just read! This book is about the drug cocaine and how it destroys lives and neighborhoods. It is written in the style of The Napping House, where one sentence builds on the next to create the story, and each is repeated when a new sentence is added. There is NO WAY this book would be published today. We would look at this book very differently today, and would find softer more fact driven ways to talk about drug abuse. And oddest of all, this was written by a comedian. It’s all just too weird. I would say this is a book that should be purged from library selves.

This poem is about the cause and affects of crack and what it does to it's victims. This poem builds on each topic starting with harvesting the plants and ending in the sad truth that innocent babies are effected by this drug. Despite this being a difficult subject, I think this book does an excellent job demonstrating the cause and effect drugs have on people. It is important to allow children to read books such as The House That Crack Built so they can have an understanding that is outside there world.

This is an excellent poem that shows the cause and effect of drugs. It starts off with a nice house with the people who live there to the people who farm and make the drug. From there it goes to the streets and it effects more people than we can even think of. It effects adults with jobs to the homeless and even newborns. This book is not about just saying yes or no to drugs but it is about the choices we make each day.

The House that Crack Built is very different from most picture books I have read. The cover offers a telling image that suggests an intended audience. The book was awarded Best Book for Young Adult and Reluctant Readers by the ALA and offers a simple, cumulative text on a very potent theme. This is often the difficulty for young adults and older children who are reluctant to read - the themes of books that may be suitable for the reading level are not suitable to the degree of socialization reached, but books that offer highly sophisticated themes are also highly sophisticated in reading level.
The front cover shows a mural that is observed by a girl who is shielding her doll from the image. The juxtaposition of the mural - a mother show more physically separated from her child - and the girl both clutching and shielding her doll from the image, is telling of the intentions of the larger work.
The cumulative work is an image of both the global and local actors in the cocaine trade, showing the cartel lords mansion and the urban ghetto as the drug moves from coca to cocaine to crack and all the violence, fear and destruction that goes along with it. While all the people in the book are hispanic or black, the author and illustrator are both from New Orleans and the work is very much an education resource. Though there are myths perpetuated - that crack is somehow alone in this situation, and a cause of the misery and urban decay in the neighbourhood depicted - it is a valuable tool to begin discussion, and may even be mature enough to offer a glimmer of dialogue with older reluctant readers. show less

This is a very effective source in emotionally driving home the devastation of the use of crack cocaine. In picture book format and written in nursery rhyme style, it can impact those who read little but may be familiar with the preponderance of crack cocaine. This would be an excellent read-alound source for teachers working with inner city children and teens who may be exposed to the drug. This would be highly recommended for such a setting and community would work very well in a drug prevention program.