Ghetto Flowers The Early Years is the first installment of three novels (although each novel is a complete story). It is an entertaining story of inner city youth coming of age in the red brick row homes, asphalt and concrete jungle of South Philadelphia. The narrow streets, homes, and alleys form a complex, cultural maze of neighborhoods for kids to utilize in their struggle to survive. Ghetto Flowers illuminates the reality of the many challenges inner city youth face in their attempt to grow beyond cultural circumstances that threaten to hinder the discovery and unfolding of their innate potential. The Ghetto Flowers will amaze you with their ingenious resourcefulness, innocence, humor, and penchant for mischief. They possess delightful personalities and an insatiable hunger for adventure. The innocence of their youth commingles with the harsh and bizarre realities of the educational, religious and civil institutions that attempt to shape their lives, and they use their intelligence to develop street smarts to navigate their way through the transition from childhood into adolescence. Each chapter is a short story collectively woven into a novel and written so that the reader can appreciate the challenge of growing up with unusual educational and cultural influences in what many would consider a world of deprivation. These inner city youth experience their neighborhood as an endless opportunity to create mischievous fun. In the process they develop a cohesive tribal community of friendships that serve to protect and guide them through many fascinating trials and tribulations. Join the Ghetto Flowers as they learn to blossom and not wither even though their roots are deeply grounded in the seemingly infertile concrete and asphalt streets. Their minds learn to reach upward to new heights of awareness, taking them on a journey towards cultural- and self-liberation.
About the Author: Francis Oliver Lynn was born in South Philadelphia and lived there for the first nineteen years of his life. The experience of growing up in a unique inner city community contributed significantly to his commitment to the educational development of people of all ages. He was inspired by his students to write the stories he told about the inner city and other experiences. The Ghetto Flowers series of novels are the fruition of that inspiration. Francis received his undergraduate degree from Indiana University, concentrating his studies in psychology, anthropology and education. He received his Masters degree in education from The College of New Jersey. He began his professional career working for the South Bend, Indiana Community School Corporation developing peer influence programs in several high schools. Francis created and directed the Youth Enrichment Program for the city of Bloomington, Indiana and served as a counselor in a shelter for runaway teenagers. He taught high school social studies and served as a counselor at the Harmony School, an independent K-12 school in Bloomington, Indiana. Francis served as Youth Programs Director at Powell House, a Quaker education and retreat center in Old Chatham, New York. There, he facilitated conferences designed to create a positive youth culture within the tradition of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) for youth from diverse cultural backgrounds. As part of that work, Francis conducted education adventure programs in Costa Rica, England, Native American Reservations and other areas of interest throughout the United States, introducing young people to principles of ecology and cultural diversity. Francis currently teaches language arts, math, science, social studies, and leads education adventure programs for young people and adults. He lives in Princeton, NJ with his wife and four children.