OP here again. Thank you for so many responses! I happen to teach in Baltimore City schools and would like to learn more about my students' backgrounds. I started reading a few books over the summer (Maid, Hillbilly Elegy, Nickel and Dimed, etc. I feel like many of my students' parents are in the same situations as the mother in Maid.

I remember reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in high school and I read The Other Wes Moore a few years ago. Now he is running for governor.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions. I don't read as much as I'd like during the school year but I'll keep a running list.

Titan the life of John D Rockefeller

Barrio Boy by Ernesto Galarza

Esperanza Rising, Becoming Naomi Leon, and other books by Pam Munoz Ryan:


https://www.pammunozryan.com/esperanza-rising/

Anonymous wrote:Found this for children's books about poverty:

https://www.rebekahgienapp.com/childrens-books-about-poverty/

Mama Miti and Ada's Violin are among my favorites. I might add:

-The Boy that Harnessed the Wind
-A Chair for my Mother
-One Plastic Bag

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Mostly poverty in the US but most of my students are from Central American so books from those areas would interest me too. Thanks!

Tomas and the Library is moving. Here are others https://www.colorincolorado.org/booklist/migrant-farmworker-families-books-kids

Edith Jackson, The Friends and Ruby by Rosa Guy are a book series for pre-teens. Those Shoes is a good one for younger children.

Anonymous wrote: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

I read this too, as a kid. It definitely made an impression. I’m glad to see that it’s still available.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Recs for you or for your students? Urban or rural? POC or white? Historical or modern?

Books for me, not for my students. I work in a city school with high poverty. An interesting mix of students. Some are Hispanic and poor and some are white and poor. The white students mostly came from families from Appalachia. They came to the city during WW2 to work in factories. Now there are very few factory jobs left so they are either unemployed or working in low paying, hourly jobs.

Really, the kids you teach are from families who migrated some 70 years ago?
Sounds fishy.

DP: Key word here is FAMILIES vs “parents”. I’m the PP who lived and worked in Baltimore. Connections and family histories and cultures matter. Good on the OP for trying to get some sense of factors that might still actively impact some of her students.

Except for the most part, they likely won't care. It's very, very old news.

You probably have no idea how many kids go “back home” for family reunions, summers, and even for longer periods of time — often at points of family crisis. I completely agree with the PP who described the “legacy” of culture, mindsets, and values that we all carry. It’s often accentuated in communities that have relatively less access to mainstream resources.

Anonymous wrote: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

+1 You beat me to it. I loved this book so much when I was a young girl and still have nostalgia for Blue Willow plates.

Bastard Out of Carolina

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Sorry. I meant books that I could read, not books to read to my students. I’d just like to learn more about poverty, even if it is a fictional book.

“The Other Wes Moore”

Maddie’s fridge

Anonymous wrote:A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

+1

Alex Kotlowitz, There Are No Children Here