The Cocaine Kids: The Inside Story of a Teenage Drug Ring

The world of teenage members of a cocaine distribution ring in New York City's Spanish Harlem is entered by sociologist Williams, coauthor of Growing Up Poor , who for almost five years observed their routines. His report, showing that young people ``are the essential link between big-time im porters and small-time users,'' contributes to the form of research known as ethnography while offering lay readers a sobering picture of the dangerous, lucrative trade that in this study involves mostly African-American and Latino children. As he tracks the teenagers' tangled lives and shadowy enterprises, we see that others wait eagerly to take the places of those who leave the business. Williams proffers no quick solution to the drug crisis, but rather an illumination, in their own words, of damaged urban youth. (Aug.)