Another Day in the Death of America

Saturday, November 23rd, 2013. It was just another day in America; an unremarkable Saturday on which ten children and teens were killed by gunfire. The youngest was nine; the oldest was nineteen. White, Black, and Latino, they fell in suburbs, hamlets, and ghettos. None made the national news. There was no outrage about their passing. It was just another day in the death of America, where, on a daily average, seven children and teens are killed by guns.

Gary Younge picked this day at random, searched for their families, and tells their stories. The nine-year-old opened the door and was shot in the head by his mother's ex-boyfriend. The eleven-year-old was killed by his friend at a sleepover in rural Michigan. The eighteen-year-old gang member on Chicago's South Side was shot in a stairwell just days after being released from prison.

Through ten moving chapters—one for each child—Younge explores the way these children lived and lost their short lives. He discovers who they were, who they wanted to be, the environments they inhabited, and what this might tell us about society at large. What emerges is a searing portrait of childhood and youth in contemporary America.

Another Day in the Death of America offers a profound insight into the realities faced by children in today’s America, shining a light on a tragic daily occurrence often overlooked.