Free lunch / Ogle, Rex

The author reveals the humiliation that came with the daily outing of his family's hunger and poverty in sixth grade when he had to announce that he participated in his school's free lunch program. While constantly hungry, Ogle also recounts how much he craved the love of family in the face of his parents' abuse and brutality.

Rex Ogle recounts his first semester in sixth grade in which he and his younger brother often went hungry, wore secondhand clothes, and were short of school supplies and he was on his school's free lunch program. Grounded in the immediacy of physical hunger and the humiliation of having to announce it every day in the school lunch line, Rex's is a compelling story of a more profound hunger--that of a child for his parents' love and care.

The author reveals the daily humiliation of having to announce that he participated in his school's free lunch program all through sixth grade, drawing attention to his family's poverty. While constantly hungry, Ogle also recounts how much he craved the love of family in the face of his parents' abuse and brutality.

"A distinctive new voice: Rex Ogle's story of starting middle school on the free lunch program is timely, heartbreaking, and true. Free Lunch is the story of Rex Ogle's first semester in sixth grade. Rex and his baby brother often went hungry, wore secondhand clothes, and were short of school supplies, and Rex was on his school's free lunch program. Grounded in the immediacy of physical hunger and the humiliation of having to announce it every day in the school lunch line, Rex's is a compelling story of a more profound hunger--that of a child for his parents' love and care. Compulsively readable, beautifully crafted, and authentically told with the voice and point of view of a 6th-grade kid, Free Lunch is a remarkable debut by a gifted storyteller"--Provided by the publisher.