Kozol is not only the author of the book, he is also a participant-observer in the stories he writes about. He came to know several of the families he wrote about when they were living in the decrepit Martinique Hotel in midtown Manhattan in the mid-to-late 1980s. Other families he came to know when they lived in the South Bronx and were connected to St. Ann’s, an Episcopal church whose priest, Martha Overall, helped the poor.

Kozol is not just a writer; he is also a friend to the people he writes about, and he is also a philanthropist whose foundation helps the people he meets. He does not feign objectivity regarding the people he writes about; instead, he is deeply immersed in their lives, as they are in his. In some of the most poignant passages in the book, he writes about his friendship with Pineapple, whom he met when she was very young. Even at that age, she lectured him about buying a better suit, and she and other people Kozol met, such as Alice Washington, were as critical to helping him as he was to helping them.