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Learning More
Middle and Senior High School:
Out of the Dust. Karen Hesse; New York: Scholastic Press, 1997.
In this book of poems, fifteen-year old Billie Jo writes of the hardships of living on her family’s wheat farm in the Oklahoma dust bowl during the Great Depression. She intertwines the ecology of the land and the topography of the heart.
Growing Up Poor: A Literary Anthology. Edited by Robert Coles and Randy Testa with Michael Coles; New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001.
This book is a collection of poems, stories, and essays of people living in poverty, from different ages, geographical locations, and historical periods. It is thematically organized into four sections: the material circumstances of poverty, condemnation and judgment that people who live in poverty often face, the working poor, and stories of resolve and resiliency.
Senior High School:
Today’s Children: Creating a Future for a Generation in Crisis. David A. Hamburg; New York: Times Books, 1992.
David A. Hamburg, a physician and recognized authority on child development, provides an overview of the crises that children and adolescents face in the United States. The story is set within a discussion of the biological, social, and psychological heritage common to all humans. The author explores the historical and changing role of families in the United States and issues of shifting social norms, rising divorce rates, teenage pregnancy, loneliness, illiteracy, poor nutrition, dislocation, violence, and poverty.
No Shame in my Game: The Working Poor in the Inner City. Katherine S. Newman; New York: Knopf, 1999.
Katherine S. Newman, an anthropologist, conducting research on people living in poverty in Harlem, finds a community of people committed to earning a living, devoted to their families, and possessing a high work ethic. As she helps break the myths of poverty, she also brings attention to the need for changes in public policy at the federal and local levels to increase job opportunities in depressed urban areas.
Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation. Jonathan Kozol; New York: Crown, 1995.
The book draws extensively upon poverty as spoken through the voices of children and their families who live in the South Bronx, the poorest congressional district in the United States.
Uncertain Lives: Children of Promise, Teachers of Hope. Robert V. Bullough, Jr; New York: Teachers College Press, 2001.
Presented in the voices of 34 children themselves who attend an elementary school, this book tells of the plight of children who live in poverty, anger, in homes with drugs, abuse, parental injury and death, and family instability. Despite their good-hearted elementary school teachers and assistance from grandparents, and the fact that the children want to do well in school, their crisis-filled lives call for broad-base changes in curtailing poverty in our nation.
Also see www.povertyusa.org:
Success Stories: Read online about New York’s Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice River Team project, which guides youth ages six to 21 through a four-phase process that uses arts and physical fitness as an introduction to a curriculum of peace and justice.
Poverty Quiz: Test your knowledge of the current state of poverty in America with this self-corrected, online quiz.
Poverty USA Tour: Take a multimedia tour of the hard financial choices faced by millions of Americans living in poverty.
Poverty Facts: A collection of facts about the state of poverty in America that illuminates understanding, including the Top Ten Poverty Rates of U.S. cities, counties and states.
| Additional Resources |
For exploring social teachings about the dignity of the human person
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| Videos: |
Chicken Run is a delightful clay animation tale about a plucky English chicken and her hen pals who, with the help of a flying Yankee rooster, must escape the cruel clutches of an egg farmer intent on turning them into chicken pies. (2000) |
| Books: |
FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS:
Reaching Dustin by Vicki Grove; Puffin Books, 1998.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor; Puffin Books, 1976.
Let the Circle Be Unbroken (sequel to Roll of Thunder) by Mildred D. Taylor; Puffin Books, 1981.
Cherokee Sister by Debbie Dadey; Delacorte Press, 2000.
Treasures in the Dust by Tracey Porter, Joanna Cotler Books, 1997.
Miles' Song by Alice McGill; Houghton-Mifflin Co., 2000.
The Graduation of Jake Moon by Barbara Park; Antheum Books for Young Readers, 2000.
My Louisiana Sky by Kimberly Willis Holt; Dell Yearling, 1998.
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan; Scholastic, 2000.
The Giver by Lois Lowry; Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1993.
Stepping on the Cracks by Mary Downing Hahn; Avon Books, 1991.
The Robber and Me by Josef Holub; Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1997.
The Starplace by Vicki Grove; Puffin Books, 1999.
Holes by Louis Sachar; Scholastic, 1998.
When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Holt Willis; Dell Yearling, 1999.
FOR HIGH SCHOOL OR ADULTS:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee; Warner Books, 1960.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck,
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith; The Blakiston Co., 1943.
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, Scribner, 1996.
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