I teach in a very high poverty school (and district). Looking for some non-fiction and fiction book recs about kids growing up in poverty. Also, documentary recs on the same topic. Thanks! |
Maybe The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy? |
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn |
“Silver” by Nora Fox Mazer |
Monday is Not Coming. |
What age? Also, poverty in the US or around the world?
Maribeth Boelts has a few good picture books - Those Shoes, Happy Like Soccer, and A Bike Like Sergio's. Maddi's Fridge by Lois Brandt addresses food insecurity. |
Look for books about adults who were kids with effed up childhoods. Generally poverty was involved. |
INVISIBLE CHILD
Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City By Andrea Elliott What age are your students? |
The best example of this is The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls |
In the Gregor the Overlander series (which is terrific), his family struggles with poverty and food insecurity. |
The Grapes of Wrath |
What ages and reading levels are your students? What’s your goal here? I can think of everything from children’s books like Little House on the Prairie to A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, to autobiographies and pretty grim works intended for adults like Rosa Lee. |
Blue Willow by Doris Gates
I remember loving this book when I was young, but that was many years ago. I can’t remember details, so I honestly don’t know how it has aged and whether there might be anything problematic in it. https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Willow-Doris-Gates/dp/0140309241 |
Not sure what age group, but the Tillerman series by Cynthia Voigt for middle schoolers. Homecoming, the first one, is excellent and has stuck with me for 30 years. |
YES. Amazing book. |