Like so many other Americans, Mike Rose was labelled illiterate at an early age. Growing up in a home raised by 1st generation, non-native English speaking parents, Rose encountered deep issues with language barriers from an early age. His humble-beginnings help start Lives on the Boundary with a narrative base that helps the reader form a personal connection to not only Rose, but the individuals this book was written for or on behalf of ultimately giving a voice to those growing up without a voice in the education system in the United States. Elizabeth Auleta's book review [1] of Rose's text was published in 1990 just a year after the original publication of Lives on the Boundary. Auleta writes, ″It is a book about the abilities hidden by class and cultural barriers. And it is a book about movement: about what happens as people who have failed begin to participate in the educational system that has seemed so harsh and distant to them.″ She goes on to acknowledge that Rose asks his audience to place his stories in a larger social context so that the premise of the book extends to any disenfranchised kid's struggle. Rose's book intertwines his story with those stories of the students he mentored during his 20 years as a professor/instructor--Auleta echoes in her review the book's ability to remediate, set curriculum references, teach (even the teacher), and document literacy as a narrative struggle of mastership, observation, and engagement.
