The Streets Are Free

J.G. Reade was Librarian of the Dalhousie Ocean Studies Programme, Dalhousie University, Halifax.

Cheo, Carlitos, and Camila have nowhere to play. They live in a “barrio,” a shantytown on a hill above the city of Caracas. There is a patch of waste ground at the foot of the hill. If only this could become their playground....

Turning their wishes into reality is a process fraught with difficulties. The children gain support from the local librarian, but they are rebuked by an irate city official, who calls in the police to disperse their small demonstration. Finally, the children gain the attention of the Mayor and the waste ground is designated as a park. But this is election time and the Mayor’s gesture turns out to be yet another disappointment, as the ground remains undeveloped. In the end, the children’s parents are aroused to action and the waste ground is transformed into a play area.

Originally published in Caracas and based on a true incident, this book points up very realistically the gulf that exists between the lives of most children in North America and the lives of young people in less fortunate countries.

The bright, colorful illustrations of The Streets Are Free give us an insight into the harried world of Cheo, Carlitos, and Camila: a woman works all day at her sewing machine; a man is stopped and searched by police with automatic weapons; the children’s kites become entangled in ramshackle overhead power lines. The “barrio” is a society in which children must struggle to survive, in which parents must work long hours for little money, and where nothing can be taken for granted.

Good for individual reading by children, but better, I think, as support resource material for grades 3/4 to be used with a social studies unit on, for example, children in other countries, housing, urban communities, etc.