Asphalt Angels

Thirteen-year-old Alex is the main character in Asphalt Angels, an unsparing look at a band of street kids trying to survive in Rio de Janeiro without family, money, or resources. Theirs is a life of deprivation and despair, lightened by luck and tenacity and the bonds these desperate children must form with one another. Alex is thrown into the streets by his stepfather when his mother dies. Hazards abound: drug-dealing, theft, glue-sniffing, harassment, brutality, even murder. It’s not easy steering clear of them, yet Alex manages to survive, eventually making a home with 14 other boys in a house, working in an office, and attending night school. Asphalt Angels grew from the real-life drama the author observed while on assignment. In an afterword, she reports that 10,000 children sleep in Rio’s streets, and more than that number roam them by day, victims of inadequate nutrition, education, and shelter, and prey to drugs and violence. Alex is based on a real boy; his name was changed for this story.