Lost Futures: Our Forgotten Children
by Stan Grossfeld
The only word to describe Stan Grossfeld's Lost Futures is "overwhelming." It's a hefty, 180-page coffee-table book that's 80% photos, 20% text.
The photos and text are all Grossfeld's. He travelled the globe documenting injustice against children, taking pictures and making notes. It's all here.
There are maybe three anecdotes that will make you cry, they're so touching. The rest of your tears—and there will be plenty—will come from anger. Anyone who isn't moved by this book—anyone who could read this book and not do something—is, quite simply, the enemy.
The book ends with a two-page spread that carries information about organizations combatting the problems laid out in the rest of the book. If I have any problem with Lost Futures, it's right here; this should have been done the way the rest of the book was, with large photos and detailed stories. But it's hardly an unforgivable flaw.
Lost Futures runs $45, but it's worth so much more. If you volunteer any time toward helping children, you undoubtedly are, at some point, asked why you do it. Now you won't have to answer—just loan them the book. If you want to look for it in your local bookstore, check in the photography section; if it's not there, ask the counter help to search the store database for where they might have shelved it; if they don't have it, tell them to order it. Bottom line—get this book.
