Jamaica and me

by Linda Atkins

Jamaica has already - literally - lost her mother (she never knew her father), has slept in New York subway tunnels, and now lives in a welfare hospital. Linda Atkins, who volunteers at the hospital, feels especially drawn to the loner Jamaica - "a skinny, tired, raggedy child with red-rimmed, pitch-black eyes that glared out from angry slits" - and begins to take her on outings, at first to neighborhood parks and then for weekend visits at home. There are good times - Linda teaches the determined, enthusiastic Jamaica to ride a bike and helps her pick out a Halloween mask - but the bad times threaten to prevail: Jamaica often lies, steals from Linda's house, and has outbursts of violence. Jamaica and Me, the candid story of Linda Atkins's experiences with a single endangered child in New York City - a story in which she assesses her own actions and motives with as much honesty as she applies to the welfare system - sounds an alarm about the state of children in need all over this coun