Literature to follow up and complement
Welfare Brat: A Memoir by Mary Childers
For further information contact:
Jan Steinbauer, Director of Literacy Programs
jsteinbauer@vermonthumanities.org
802-262-1352
Welfare Brat: A Memoir. VHC has available for loan copies of the memoir as well
as a DVD of author Mary Childers’ public presentation in VHC’s First Wednesdays
program. “Referencing her own story, [Dr. Mary Childers] discusses paths out of
poverty and away from welfare dependence, as well as ethical issues associated with
publishing memoirs.”
Memoir/writing our stories and Biography/autobiography:
All Over But the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg. Rick Bragg won a Pulitzer Prize for his
feature articles at the New York Times. He never forgets his roots and draws on firsthand
knowledge of how poverty deforms lives and on his personal belief in the dignity of poor
people. His memoir of a poor Southern youth pays tribute to his mother who struggled
to raise three sons out of poverty, and his own struggles to forgive his alcoholic father.
Bad Boy by Walter Dean Myers. Award-winning children’s book writer Myers tells the
story of his own childhood growing up in a poor family in Harlem, discovering his love
of books and writing while also living with bullying and the class and racial struggles
surrounding him.
Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from
Homeless to Harvard by Liz Murray. From runaway to Harvard student, Murray tells
a powerfully motivational story about turning her life around after growing up the
neglected child of drug addicts, and breaking a generational pattern of violence,
substance abuse, and homelessness. (View the film From Homeless to Harvard and
compare/contrast with the book.)
Couldn’t Keep it to Myself: Wally Lamb and the Women of York
Correctional Institution (Testimonies from our Sisters) or the sequel,
I’ll Fly Away. For many years, Lamb has run writing workshops for women prisoners
at York Correctional Institution in Connecticut. In these collections, the women
describe how they were imprisoned by abuse, rejection, and their own self-destructive
impulses long before they entered the criminal justice system. Yet these are powerful
stories of hope and healing, told by writers who have left victimhood behind.
The Freedom Writers Diary by Erin Gruwell and the Freedom Writers. Struggling
high school students, living in the midst of Los Angeles’ poverty and violence, are
empowered through reading literature and writing their own stories. (View the film and
compare/contrast with the book.)
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. Memoir of a successful professional woman from
a poor, dysfunctional family with eccentric, nomadic parents. The prequel, Half Broke
Horses, features her grandmother who was a strong, independent woman.
Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos. Award-winning memoir recounting the author’s
choice as a young man to help smuggle drugs into the US, and the consequences that
followed—both bad and good.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Autobiographical stories of a
young Latina girl in Chicago, including her feelings about growing up in poverty and her
hopes for the future.
Knots in My Yo-yo String: The Autobiography of a Kid by Jerry Spinelli. Memoir
of a child who liked baseball and yo-yos more than books . . . on the way to becoming a
writer.
Living up the Street by Gary Soto. Poetic coming-of-age account of growing up in the
industrial barrio of Fresno.
When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant. A picture book of her
growing up in Appalachia in rural poverty, with strong family connections.
When I Was Your Age: Original Stories About Growing Up, Amy Ehrich, ed. A
collection of short memoirs by ten writers who tell a story from their childhood
(Katherine Paterson, Walter Dean Myers, etc.)
Resource book: Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing
Memoir by Natalie Goldberg. A celebration of and guide to writing the memoir form,
with practical guidance and a variety of exercises.
Poetry:
Poetry books and anthologies can inspire reflecting on one’s life and writing poetry.
Female poets could include Maya Angelou, Mary Oliver, Joan Murray (e.g., Poems to Live
By in Troubling Times), Naomi Shihab Nye, Sharon Olds (Strike Sparks – Selected Poems),
and Rita Dove (Mother Love).
Fiction:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Humorous
and heartbreaking young adult novel about Junior, a talented cartoonist from an Indian
reservation who struggles to rise above his own tragedies to live his dream.
I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This by Jacqueline Woodson. YA fiction.
A sensitive yet gritty short novel about incest. Two girls: one white, one black; one
abused, one protected, both missing their mothers. An unlikely friendship ignites
between the two, and, in sharing their differences, both of their lives are transformed.
Just Juice by Karen Hesse. YA fiction. Set in rural Appalachia, the opening image of Ma
"spreading grape jelly so thin on the sliced white bread you can hardly find the purple"
gives readers an immediate impression of the family's poverty level. Learning disabilities,
a difficult pregnancy, an unemployed father, and foreclosure on their house are among
the many challenges faced by the resilient protagonist and her large family.
Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff. YA fiction. Two inner-city teen girls
struggle toward better lives: a single teen mom is trying to make it, and another teen
provides the childcare. One girl's steady support helps the other to bootstrap herself
into better times and she, in turn, helps her young friend to clarify her own values.
Themes include parental love, sexual harassment, abuse, independence, and the value of
education. The Make Lemonade Trilogy includes True Believer and This Full
House.
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. YA fiction. A gripping story, written in sparse firstperson, free-verse poems, of a young girl’s struggle to survive during the dust bowl
years.
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson. YA fiction. A feisty young female
protagonist copes with abandonment by her mother and growing up in foster care.
The Same Stuff as Stars by Katherine Paterson. YA fiction. A strong young female
protagonist takes on the role of parenting her younger brother, with a father in jail and
a mother who abandons her children to the care of their great-grandmother, in a setting
of rural Vermont poverty with little food. She grows into a stronger self, coming to see
herself as one made from the “same stuff as stars.”
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. Adult fiction. Set in 1960s South, a
coming-of-age story of a girl without a mother, living with an abusive father, who
develops positive relationships with a trio of black women.
What Jamie Saw by Carolyn Coman. YA fiction. A moving story about domestic
violence told from a young boy’s perspective — how a child thinks and feels in a
situation beyond his control, and how he emerges stronger. A Newbury Honor book.
Fiction Picture Books:
A Chair for My Mother by Vera Williams. After loss from a fire receiving help from
their local community, a hard-working mother, daughter and grandmother save toward
their dream of a new chair.
An Angel for Solomon Singer by Cynthia Rylant. An elderly man lives in a dreary
New York City hotel for men, longing for things he can't have. Amidst his loneliness
and poverty, one warm human contact changes him.
Don’t Say Ain’t by Irene Smalls. A girl has difficulties with her best friends in her
neighborhood when she begins to attend an advanced school, and she learns from her
teacher that different ways of talking are appropriate for at home and at school.
Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting. Picture book. A child’s-eye view of the problem of
homelessness: a young boy and his father live in an airport terminal.
Something Beautiful by Sharon Dennis Wyeth. In the midst of an urban setting
where poverty and violence can be seen, one can also find beauty all around, and inside.
The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills. Set in Appalachia after a little girl’s father dies, the
community of local women create a warm coat for her, a coat full of stories.
Something from Nothing by Phoebe Gilman. A traditional Jewish folktale about
family love and ingenuity, and making do with what is at hand.
Tight Times by Barbara Shook Hazen. A family deals with “tight times” and the father’s
loss of a job.
Tom by Tomie dePaola. A tale about a relationship between a boy and his grandfather
… and a bit of school mischief that ensues.
Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan. A fictional view of an
urban soup kitchen and those in need who use its services, as observed by a boy visiting
it with his uncle who works there.
Cinderella
Explore cultural images of women and beauty in picture books of the folktale, as found
in various cultures, for example:
Jounah - a Hmong
Cinderella
Yeh-Hsien Chinese
Cinderella
The Korean
Cinderella
Cendrillon
The Talking Eggs
Mufaro's Beautiful
Daughters
The Rough-Face Girl
Picture book (with authentic
Jewell Reinhart Coburn Hmong art)
(Bilingual Chinese Traditional
Dawn Casey
Character/English)
Shirley Climo
Also The Egyptian Cinderella, The
Persian Cinderella
Robet D. San Souci
Caribbean
Robert San Souci
African American
John Steptoe
Rafe Martin
African
Native American (Algonquin)
For educators, staff, and higher-level readers,
recommended by Mary Childers:
Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy
League by Ron Suskind The author won a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 1995
for his stories on Cedric Jennings, a talented black teenager struggling to succeed in one
of the worst public high schools in Washington, D.C. Suskind has expanded those
features into a full-length nonfiction narrative, following Jennings beyond his high school
graduation to college, and delivers a compelling story on the struggles of inner-city life in
modern America, with a message about the virtue of perseverance.
Kettle Bottom by Diane Gilliam Fisher. Based on the historical and social events of
the West Virginia coal mine wars of 1920-1921, the vivid and heartfelt poems in this
book convey the stories of miners and their families. The mountaineers, Italian
immigrants, and Black families organized for safe working conditions in opposition to the
mine company owners. Kettle Bottom is about how a community lived in the presence of
constant danger and the choices the residents made.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. The classic story about a young girl's
coming-of-age at the turn of the century in the slums of Brooklyn. Like the tree that
grows out of cement or through cellar gratings, the resourceful protagonist struggles
against all odds to survive and thrive. The daily experiences of the Nolan family are raw
with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness.
An Angle of Vision: Women Writers on Their Poor and Working-Class Roots,
Lorraine M. Lopez, ed. A compelling anthology of personal essays and memoir by a
diverse group of gifted authors united by their poor or working-class roots in America.
The stories are, in a sense, travel narratives of women who have journeyed beyond
their family circumstances to cross class borders, aided by educational opportunities
that encouraged their literary gifts to blossom. Mary Childers’ contribution is entitled
“Sex and the Inner City.”
Rewarding Strivers: Helping Low-Income Students Succeed in College,
Richard D. Kahlenberg, ed. Higher education is a major force in promoting social
mobility, yet colleges and universities seem more concerned with prestige than finding
ways to make higher learning more accessible. This book outlines two high-profile
models that colleges and universities can follow in making the American Dream a
realistic one for all students.
Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, Second Edition with an
Update a Decade Later by Annette Lareau, 2011. Social class does make a
difference in the lives and futures of American children, and this carefully researched
book explores this fact. The book powerfully portrays class inequalities in the United
States and analyzes the processes through which inequality is reproduced. The insights
about the social stratification of family life and childrearing have deep implications for
understanding inequality and for understanding the challenges of raising children in
America.
When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor by William Julius
Wilson, 1997. One of the foremost authorities on race and poverty looks squarely at
the devastating effects that joblessness has had on urban poor, and argues that problems
endemic to America's inner cities stem directly from the disappearance of blue-collar
jobs in the wake of a globalized economy.
And: Any work by Janet Zandy, professor of language and literature at the Rochester
Institute of Technology who has published widely on women's issues. Her books
include:
Calling Home: Working-Class Women's Writings. A powerful and
uncompromising collection of essays, stories, poems, oral histories, and more,
reflecting the history and personal experiences of working-class women in
America.
Hands: Physical Labor, Class, and Cultural Work. The author examines the
literal loss of lives to unsafe jobs and occupational hazards, and asks critical
questions about worker representation. She presents the voices of working-class
writers and artists, and discusses their contribution to knowledge and culture.
Mary Childers also recommends:
Akeelah and the Bee, a 2006 American film written and directed by Doug Atchison
that explores issues of education in a low socioeconomic African American community.
It tells the story of Akeelah Anderson, an 11-year-old girl who participates in the Scripps
National Spelling Bee, and her mother, schoolmates, and coach. A great movie for kids.
Additional suggestions for staff and higher-level readers:
Growing Up Poor: A Literary Anthology, edited by Robert Coles and Randy Testa
with Michael Coles. In a land of seemingly endless plenty, the book offers a startling and
beautiful collection of stories, poems, and essays about growing up without. Selections
range from growing up in the slums of New York in the early 1900s, to a family’s
struggle during the Depression, to contemporary stories of rural and urban poverty by
some foremost authors, including Langston Hughes, Sandra Cisneros, Ralph Ellison,
Sherman Alexie, Gary Soto, Mildred Taylor, and Zora Neal Hurston.
Nickle and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. In
1998, inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that
a job — any job — can be the ticket to a better life, the author decided to do personal
research on how women pushed into the labor market could survive. She left her
employment as a journalist and found jobs as an low-skilled worker, learning survival
strategies of the poor and working class, and discovering that no job is “unskilled,” that
one job is not enough, and that hard work fails to live up to its reputation as the ticket
out of poverty.
Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel
About What They Do by Studs Terkel. The author relates the voices of American
men and women from every walk of life as they tell him of their likes and dislikes, fears,
problems, and joys on the job.
Additional literature to empower young women:
The Amelia Bloomer project creates an annual booklist of the best feminist
books for young readers, as part of the Feminist Task Force of the Social
Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association.
www.ameliabloomer.wordpress.com
Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from
Around the World by Kathleen Ragan. Gathered from around the world, these 100
multicultural folktales celebrate strong female heroines who save lives and bring peace
to their communities not through brute strength — although endurance is a frequent
feat — but through creativity, intelligence, eloquence, wisdom, kindness, perseverance,
and loyalty. One reviewer comments, “It is really refreshing to find out that women's
empowerment is not something new!” Adult level.
Strong women ~ biographical collections:
Amelia to Zora: Twenty-Six Women Who Changed the World by Cynthia
Chin-Lee and others. The book introduces twenty-six diverse, 20th-century women
who have made a difference in such varied fields as the arts, sports, journalism, science,
and entertainment. Determination, imagination, perseverance, and strength bind them
together. A short introduction, a quote, and art illustrate the essence of each person.
Readers are introduced to the scope of the struggles and achievements of women from
many times and many places. Elementary level.
Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone.
When NASA was launched in 1958, thirteen women proved they had as much of the
right stuff as men to be astronauts, but their way to space was blocked by prejudice,
insecurity, and a scrawled note written by one of Washington's most powerful men.
This is the true story of the Mercury 13 women. Photos.
Dare to Dream! 25 Extraordinary Lives by Sandra McLeod. A collection of
biographical sketches of famous 20th-century individuals, male and female who all have
one thing in common: they became successful in the face of adversity and therefore are
great role models for youth. Each individual’s life and education are discussed, as well as
how that person's success may be attributed to hard work and courage. This book is
good for reluctant readers as each biography can be read independently. The appeal is in
the amazing facts and the diversity of individuals across history, race, class, and
profession. Middle level.
50 Women Artists You Should Know by Christine Weidemann and others. This
book offers more than five hundred years of achievements in art by women. This survey
of fifty influential women artists from the Renaissance to the Post-Modern era details
their vast contributions to the art world. For each artist there is a timeline highlighting
significant events in her life; a short biography and information about her
accomplishments and influence; additional resources to further study the artist; and fullcolor reproductions of the artist’s works.
Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women by
Catherine Thimmesh and Melissa Sweet. A collective biography of women and girls
who changed the world with their inventions. Included are Bette Nesmith Graham,
who invented Liquid Paper ("white-out"), and Ann Moore, who emulated the way
African mothers carried their babies to create the Snugli. The book encourages young
women to start inventing themselves and offers a list of organizations to help them get
started. Colorful artwork shows the women and their creations and adds vibrancy to
the text. Middle level.
Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (and What the Neighbors
Thought) by Kathleen Kruss and Kathryn Hewitt. This collection of biographies covers
many well-known individuals as well as some more unknown. Readers are enticed by a
bit of “gossip” in places. The stories are arranged chronologically, beginning with
Cleopatra and concluding with Guatemalan leader Rigoberta Menchu. "Ever After"
sections reveal aftereffects of each person's contribution to history. Middle level.
100 Women Who Shaped World History by Gail Meyer Rolka. Arranged
chronologically, this selection of 100 profiles reveals how much women have done to
shape history. Beginning with Queen Makare Hatshepsut (c. 1503-1468 B.C.) and
concluding with Rigoberta Menchu, still actively involved in human rights issues, the
concise profiles span history and place each woman's accomplishments within the
context of the society in which she lived. Includes a list of related projects. YA.
Strong women ~ picture books:
Brave Margaret: An Irish Adventure by Robert D. San Souci. A retelling of an Irish
folktale in which a young woman sails the high seas and confronts dangers, including an
elderly sorceress and an evil giant. Along the way she discovers her true strength.
Changing Woman and Her Sisters: Stories of Goddesses from Around the
World by Katrin Hyman Tchana. A celebration of feminine power, beauty, and
complexity that tells the stories of ten goddesses from cultures the world over.
The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Goble. Story of a young Native American
girl and her relationship with the horses in her care.
The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie DePaola. When a killing drought
threatens the existence of the tribe, a courageous little Comanche girl sacrifices her
most beloved possession to try to bring back the rain.
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. American Book Award-winning story of a woman
who longs to travel the world, live in a house by the sea, and do something to make the
world more beautiful.
Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa by Jeanette Winter. This
story follows Wangari, a girl—and then a woman—on a quest to bring back the trees
around her home. Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan, won a Nobel Peace Prize for her
contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.
Zora Hurston and the Chinaberry Tree by William Miller. Dreaming of living in
the cities that she sees from the top of the chinaberry tree, young Zora learns about
reaching for her dreams and listens to the stories of her fellow townspeople, from
whom she obtains the secret of keeping the past alive.
Updated October 2014