ALL GOD'S CHILDREN Inside the Dark and Violent World of Street Families RENE DENFELD

"In her new book All God's Children, Rene Denfeld looks inside the world of ‘street families,' which, as it turns out, are as violent and organized as drug gangs and as ubiquitous in the urban landscape as Starbucks…[W]hat is most fascinating about this alien world is how much it has in common with mainstream teen experience, with all of the familiar hierarchies and insecurities of high school. The worries that keep kids awake at night don't change depending on whether they sleep indoors or out. When one kid in Denfeld's book is marked for death for flirting with the wrong person, the punishment seems appallingly harsh. And we're left wondering who among us, in our younger days, was not once guilty of that particular crime."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"[Denfeld's] intimate portrait of this fantasy fueled, violent subculture—populated almost exclusively by teens from white, middle-class homes—is gory and shocking."
—Publishers Weekly

"A feminist writer and the mother of three adopted children from the Oregon foster care system, Denfeld began to investigate the world of street kids after the widely publicized 2003 murder of a developmentally disabled young adult named Jessica Williams by members of a Portland street family. Her latest book, All God's Children, is the result of that research. Using the Williams case as a prism, Denfeld crafts a chilling portrait of street culture—one that will turn your assumptions about these kids and their lives inside out."
-Salon.com