poverty

A graphic memoir about the author's experiences as a young person when her family was awarded a new house built for them by Habitat for Humanity, including their struggles with poverty and work to build and maintain the home.

"On the streets of Victorian London, Bridie uses her wit selling matches to help feed her family--but no matter how hard she works, it's never enough to stave off hunger or keep her ailing mother safe from the factory's toxins. When a street-side accident leaves Bridie with only three matches, the strike of each one sends her magically tumbling into visions of a brighter, more hopeful future. Realizing she has the power to change her own fortune, Bridie urges the ill-treated factory workers to protest and strike, achieving something remarkable through unity and courage. A far cry from the doomed little girl in Hans Christian Andersen's classic tale, Emma Carroll's spirited heroine brings new life to this empowering retelling, inspired by historical events and featuring Lauren Child's bold, stylish black-and-white artwork with vivid spots of red. Author and illustrator notes, along with vintage photographs, offer enlightening context for readers at the end"--From the publisher's web site.

"Follows the lives of two young teens--members of a Romani family. Saida and Nikola experience harsh discrimination at school and crushing poverty in their improvised settlement, spread out under a bridge in Belgrade. Their dreams of escape and of leaving deplorable conditions behind trigger a family crisis. In particular, Nikola is a gifted trumpeter and aspires to be a famous musician, but it proves challenging to surmount the enormous barriers between his present situation and the self-mastery and life of dignity he seeks"--Provided by publisher.

"Jess finds a secret diary and imagines what it would be like to be a girl who has everything. Will she become so wrapped up in someone else's life that she misses a chance to create her own? Jess cleans houses to save money for college, because her dad -- unemployed and off the wagon yet again -- has moved the two of them out of the city into a decrepit borrowed tent and trailer. Jess wavers between anger at her father and fear that poverty and addiction may be her fate, too, and she decides she will do whatever it takes to avoid it. She gets a gig cleaning a gorgeous country home and discovers the trashed bedroom of the teenaged daughter, Quinn. Jess wonders how a girl with a perfect life - private school, horseback riding - could have wrecked such a beautiful room. As she cleans, she finds troubling clues - including, tucked behind the bed, a diary. Gradually Jess learns that Quinn's life is not what it's supposed to be. Jess begins to imagine becoming friends with Quinn, and when she begins to write down a new story for Quinn, she risks turning her back on the opportunities that are right in front of her - new friends, new interests, a fresh beginning."--Provided by publisher.

Poverty and hunger look different around the world. In the United States, poverty can include people living on the streets as well as those who have low-paying jobs and receive formal government assistance. In other parts of the world, those living in poverty may only have a shack and no available jobs. Poor living conditions and not having enough to eat cause deaths every day. What can young people do about it? This set not only introduces the problems associated with poverty and hunger in an age-appropriate way, but also gives readers tips to standing against poverty and hunger in their communities.

Poverty-stricken Joseph bravely rides out all the storms life keeps throwing at him.

"A wealthy businessman is dead, and fifteen-year-old Ruby Monroe is in a Dallas jail awaiting trial for his murder. Ruby has no one she can count on--no one, except her state-appointed caseworker, a woman named Cadence Ware. In Ruby's experience, that's not anyone she can trust. Cadence is familiar with the cold reality of Ruby's situation, even before Ruby was arrested. Angry and alone, homeless and hungry, breaking the law just to survive, she is the kind of girl no one wants to listen to, especially not the prosecutor who wants to put her away for life. But no one knows the story--the real story--of what happened the day Ruby met the man who would end up dead. As the layers of truth are peeled away and time is running out, Ruby and Cadence will both have desperate choices to make--choices that could mean the difference between Ruby spending her life in prison or her name being cleared"--Provided by publisher.

A Nigerian Catcher in the Rye, Uchenna Awoke?s masterful debut breaks the silence about a hidden and dangerous contemporary caste system Fifteen-year-old Dimkpa dreams of the day his father will be made village head. He will return to school and maybe even go on to university; his mother will no longer have to break her back foraging wild food to sell at market; they will have the money to build a fine tomb for his aunt Okike; and his family?s status as ohu ma, the lowest Igbo caste, won?t matter anymore. But when his father is passed over for a younger man, breaking tradition, Dimkpa realizes that he must make his own fate. Journeying from his small village in rural Nigeria, to Lagos, Awka, and home again, Dimkpa learns that no money is easy money, that superstition runs deep, that knowledge is power, and that sometimes it is better to live in the present than to always be chasing a future just out of reach. The Liquid Eye of a Moon is by turns hilarious and poignant, capturing all the messiness of adolescence, and the difficulty of making your own way in a world that seeks to oppress you.

"Three of the nation's top scholars, known for tackling key mysteries about poverty in America, turn their attention from the country's poorest people to its poorest places. Based on a fresh, data-driven approach, they discover that America's most disadvantaged communities are not the big cities that get the most notice. Instead, nearly all are rural. Little if any attention has been paid to these places or to the people who make their lives there. This revelation set in motion a five-year journey across Appalachia, the Cotton and Tobacco Belts of the Deep South, and South Texas. Immersing themselves in these communities, pouring over centuries of local history, attending parades and festivals, the authors trace the legacies of the deepest poverty in America, including inequalities shaping people's health, livelihoods, and upward social mobility for families"--Provided by publisher.

"'Class' paints an intimate and heartbreaking portrait of motherhood as it converges and often conflicts with personal desire and professional ambition. Who has the right to create art? Who has the right to go to college? And what kind of work is valued in our culture? In clear, candid, and moving prose, 'Class' grapples with these questions, offering a[n] indictment of America's educational system and a . . . testimony of a mother's triumph against all odds"--Provided by publisher.