ABSTRACT
Race and ethnicity play minimal roles in coming to know children in Ordinary Resurrections that, in most cases, readers must determine on their own the ethnicity of the child. Minimizing ethnicity is problematic in the process of coming to know children because it opens an avenue for us to romanticize and even canonize the behavior of children when what the readers observe may simply be the expected norm for children within that group. The chapter talks about the impact of poverty on the lives of the children of Mott Haven, from both global and particular perspectives. From a global perspective, all the children of Mott Haven experience violence in their neighborhood, many go hungry, many do not have adequate health care, and all were exposed to the dangers of a medical waste incinerator for six years, until protest finally forced it to be closed down.
