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Author
Language
English
Appears on these lists
2024 Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction - Shortlist
NYT - Paperback Nonfiction
Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2023
NYT - Paperback Nonfiction
Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2023
Description
"The Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author of Evicted reimagines the debate on poverty, making a new and bracing argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it. The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and...
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 4.7 - AR Pts: 10
Language
English
Formats
Description
With love and determination befitting the "world's greatest family," twelve-year-old Deza Malone, her older brother Jimmie, and their parents endure tough times in Gary, Indiana, and later Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression.
Author
Pub. Date
2013.
Language
English
Description
In five years, Jesmyn Ward lost five young men in her life to drugs, accidents, suicide, and the bad luck that can follow people who live in poverty, particularly black men. But why? As she began to write about living through all the dying, Jesmyn realized the truth -- and it took her breath away. Her brother and her friends all died because of who they were and where they were from, because they lived with a history of racism and economic struggle....
Author
Language
English
Description
"Haunted by her sister's mysterious disappearance, Lucy Wilson arrives in Rowan County, Kentucky, in the spring of 1911 to work for Cora Wilson Stewart, superintendent of education. When Cora sends Lucy into the hills to act as scribe for the mountain people, she is repelled by the primitive conditions and intellectual poverty she encounters. Few adults can read and write.Born in those hills, Cora knows the plague of illiteracy. So does Brother Wyatt,...
Author
Language
English
Description
"An eye-opening memoir of working-class poverty in the American Midwest. During Sarah Smarsh's turbulent childhood in Kansas in the 1980s and 1990s, the forces of cyclical poverty and the country's changing economic policies solidified her family's place among the working poor. By telling the story of her life and the lives of the people she loves, Smarsh challenges us to look more closely at the class divide in our country and examine the myths about...
Publisher
Broadleaf Books
Pub. Date
[2021]
Language
English
Description
"In We Cry Justice, leaders of the Poor People's Campaign -- a movement against racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism, and religious nationalism -- uncover what the Bible really says about justice and poverty. Liz Theoharis is joined by pastors, organizers, scholars, low-wage workers, and people in poverty in interpreting sacred stories about the poor seeking healing, justice, and freedom. Find in the pages of Scripture God's persistent...
Author
Publisher
Random House
Pub. Date
c2009
Language
English
Description
Arguing that our current response to world poverty is not only insufficient but ethically indefensible, philosopher Peter Singer offers a seven-point plan that mixes personal philanthropy (figuring how much to give and how best to give it), local activism (spreading the word in your community), and political awareness (contacting your representatives to ensure that your nation's foreign aid is really directed to the world's poorest people).
Author
Publisher
Christy Ottaviano Books, Henry Holt and Company
Pub. Date
2020.
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 6.1 - AR Pts: 13
Language
English
Description
From age six through her high school valedictory speech, believing she and her mother are wizards helps young Echo cope with poverty, hunger, her mother's drug abuse, and much more.
9) Line by line
Author
Series
Love along the wires volume 1
Language
English
Formats
Description
"In 1881, Douglas Shaw has escaped a life of poverty-and now he's determined to marry into high society. But when Alice McNeil, a telegrapher at his firm, raises the ire of a vindictive co-worker, he must choose between rescuing her reputation and the future he's always planned"--
10) Code red
Author
Publisher
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Pub. Date
[2023]
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 5 - AR Pts: 9
Language
English
Description
Thirteen-year-old former elite gymnast Eden is feeling lost after a career-ending injury, but when she meets new friends who open her eyes to period poverty, the struggle that low-income people have trying to afford menstrual products, she becomes an advocate for fair treatment and rediscovers her passion and drive.
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"Twin sisters Bibike and Ariyike are enjoying a relatively comfortable life in Lagos in 1996. Then their mother loses her job due to political strife, and the family, facing poverty, becomes drawn into the New Church, an institution led by a charismatic pastor who is not shy about worshipping earthly wealth. Soon Bibike and Ariyike's father wagers the family home on a "sure bet" that evaporates like smoke. As their parents' marriage collapses in the...
Author
Publisher
The New Press
Pub. Date
[2022]
Language
English
Description
"Many Americans take comfort and convenience for granted. We eat at nice restaurants, order groceries online, and hire nannies to care for kids. Getting Me Cheap is a portrait of the lives of the low-wage workers-primarily women-who make this lifestyle possible. Sociologists Lisa Dodson and Amanda Freeman follow women in the food, health care, home care, and other low-wage industries as they struggle to balance mothering with bad jobs and without...
13) Heart bones
Author
Language
English
Description
"Life and a dismal last name are the only two things Beyah Grim's parents ever gave her. After carving her path all on her own, Beyah is well on her way to bigger and better things, thanks to no one but herself. With only two short months separating her from the future she's built and the past she desperately wants to leave behind, an unexpected death leaves Beyah with no place to go during the interim. Forced to reach out to her last resort, Beyah...
14) Gather
Author
Publisher
Candlewick Press
Pub. Date
2023.
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 5.4 - AR Pts: 13
Language
English
Appears on list
Formats
Description
Ian Gray isn't supposed to have a dog, but a lot of things that shouldn't happen end up happening anyway. And Gather, Ian's adopted pup, is good company now that Ian has to quit the basketball team, find a job, and take care of his mom as she tries to overcome her opioid addiction. Despite the obstacles thrown their way, Ian is determined to keep his family afloat no matter what it takes. And for a little while, things are looking up: Ian makes friends,...
Author
Publisher
A King Production
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
"Angel is the daughter of Nico Carter, the one that wasn't born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Instead of inheriting a life of luxury, she lived hers in poverty. But being the child of a notorious Kingpin, Angel has the spirit of a hustler running through her blood. She uses those skills to change her destiny. Because all Angel sees, is the money."--P. [4] of cover.
16) Golden arm
Author
Publisher
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Pub. Date
[2020]
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG+ - BL: 4.5 - AR Pts: 10
Language
English
Description
Lazarus "Laz" Weathers has always been shy, and his issue with stuttering when he speaks hasn't helped. Stuck in a Seattle trailer park, Laz finds baseball helps him escape from the world of poverty and drugs. When he gets an opportunity to pitch for the rich kids across town, he has a chance to get drafted by the major leagues. But playing for the other team means leaving behind his family, including Antonio, Laz's younger brother, who more and more,...
Author
Series
Daughters of the promised land volume 3
Language
English
Formats
Description
When famine visits Bethlehem, Boaz holds out hope for rain while his relative Elimelech moves his wife Naomi and their sons to Moab. For a while, it appears the Lord is blessing Elimelech's family, and his sons marry two lovely Moabite women. But calamities strike, one after another, leaving Naomi alone in a foreign land with only her childless daughters-in-law for comfort. When news reaches Naomi that the famine in Bethlehem has lifted, only Ruth...
Author
Publisher
Crown
Pub. Date
[2018]
Language
English
Description
Imagine if every month the government deposited $1,000 into your bank account, with nothing expected in return. It sounds crazy. But it has become one of the most influential and hotly debated policy ideas of our time. Futurists, radicals, libertarians, socialists, union representatives, feminists, conservatives, Bernie supporters, development economists, child-care workers, welfare recipients, and politicians from India to Finland to Canada to Mexico--all...
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 4.9 - AR Pts: 12
Language
English
Description
When Frankie's mother died and her father left her and her siblings at an orphanage in Chicago, it was supposed to be only temporary - just long enough for him to get back on his feet and be able to provide for them once again. That's why she is not prepared for the day that he arrives for his weekend visit with a new woman on his arm and out-of-state train tickets in his pocket. Now Frankie and her sister, Toni, are abandoned alongside so many other...
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