Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City (Pulitzer Prize Winner) Paperback – 7 Jun. 2022

Don’t be put off by the length - this is an absorbing read and one which has you cheering and shouting in equal measures as you watch both ‘the system’ and Dasani’s family shape her future in varying measures at different times. It is heartbreaking that this story is so current and whilst the author obviously has her views, I feel that the writing was sensitive and balanced. I urge you to buy it.

Like a film plot where you can't bear the injustice, this book maps the severe spirals that trap Dasani's family and de rail their lives. It was exceptional writing, taking you right to what happened "live"... And underlines how societal change just be everyone's concern.

In 2012 New York Times investigative reporter Andrea Elliott started to follow the lives of a homeless family based in New York, as she got to know them better her focus shifted to one of their eight children, 11-year-old Dasani. Over the course of eight years, Elliott’s reporting turned Dasani into a poster child for child poverty, just one of the approx. 1.38 million homeless children living in contemporary America, one in twelve based in New York. Dasani’s family were initially in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, all ten confined to one room of a crumbling, homeless, residential shelter, sharing their space with mice and roaches, using a yellow bucket as a night-time toilet because the communal bathrooms were too dangerous to risk. Dasani’s family’s story’s all too familiar, and as Elliott’s account progresses it takes in the consequences of structural racism; the impact of opioid and other forms of addiction; the failings of the foster care and public housing systems; segregated schools; parents with no support to aid them in parenting. Dasani’s family swings between periods of relative financial security and dire straits, and this, I imagine, will be fuel for the right-wing readers and politicians with their emphasis on individuals’ poor choices and bad decision-making – not taking into account that poverty requires financial management of a kind that the relatively affluent with their Mastercards, and high credit ratings are not expected to practice.Elliott also highlights the ways in which systems that were set in place to aid children’s well-being have degenerated into surveillance systems, with routine visits to check bodies for bruises but not to provide advice or other forms of direct support – a mixture of policy, lack of staff and inadequate funding. Their preferred choice in this situation was for the family to be split up, with many of the children ending up long-term in short-term facilities or in foster care that neglected their medical and other needs, or moved them away from their local communities. Interestingly help with funding for education, future housing was on offer, if in care, but not for staying with the family. Teachers often stand out as heroes here, providing frameworks for stable living, boosting self-esteem but again beset with difficulties, not least dwindling school budgets.Elliott’s book’s accessible, thoughtful, insightful. There’s a suppressed fury at times, and a tendency to tilt towards creative non-fiction that’s designed to elicit an emotional response, not necessarily a bad thing we should be appalled that children are suffering in this way, but it’s not always clear how that immediate response might translate into action that then might actually lead to change. There’s always a danger, I feel, that this kind of book fosters a form of voyeurism, reinforcing the ‘poor them’ othering narratives. There are also ethical issues here, although Elliott - whose research’s thorough and whose method’s carefully documented - does try to address these. What does it mean for an 11-year-old to consent to being documented and represented in this way? What does it/will it do to someone to be singled out for their lack? Even if the story foregrounds their resilience, their refusal to ‘bow down.’ I can’t fully do justice to the range of issues interwoven with child poverty that Elliott raises here but they’re ones that need to be seen to be confronted, and for that reason alone her book’s more than worth the tim

Incredibly written, powerful. Only complaint actual paperback itself fell apart before I was half way through 🙁

Couldn’t put it down and really well written. What a harrowing story for this family. The system really sucks so much

Excellent portrayal of the trials and tribulations of African\ American family with inner city poverty, homelessness,and drug addiction and a system that fails them.

Thankfully I got the audio book as well Depressingly predictable I am about 75% through and listen to it whilst walking my dog, and even the dog is bored.one quote I remember " her 6th child by an unavailable father" !!!???

The best book of this type that I have read. I found it engrossing, disturbing, maddening, and interesting throughout. Investigative journalism at its very best. Highly recommended without reservation

ENGAGING! Every page! The detail is rich. Page turner for this impressionable reader. On the lookout for more nonfiction from this author.

Touching & moving. A glimpse into lives of children and family, with historical and sociological analysis provided.

I see drug addiction and irrationality as the issues here, not the poverty. Irrationality to have 8 children when unable to feed them, not gaining meaningful employment, leaving a good school for street life! Birthing children when unable to properly look after them should now be considered as a crime.Lost all sympathy when Dasani left the Hershey'sand joined the reds.

Une œuvre magnifique, indispensable et au-delà du récit de résilience , universelle !

Even though it’s a documentary, this book reads like a fast paced novel. Almost impossible to out down. Like The Glass Castle, it’s hard to read, but so insightful.