Chapter 3: Amsterdam Avenue Summary

April 23

Jazmin, on the front stoop again, watches J.D., a numbers runner, dash down the street in the rain. According to CeCe, Jazmin spends way too much time on the stoop. But Jazmin likes to sprawl out in the outdoors on the wide steps. She's had many years of being cramped into small rooming houses, sometimes sleeping three in a bed. The current one and one-half bedroom apartment they have lacks space even though her mother's not there—she's back in the hospital. Looking down wide Amsterdam Avenue there in Washington Heights, she takes in the bustling, crowded street. Restaurants, stores, storefront churches and beauty salons are all jammed together. There is a lack of bookstores and libraries. Jazmin figures she will one day have to fight for the space for them.

Chapter 3: Amsterdam Avenue Analysis

Jazmin...