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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: |
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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)
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| 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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