Invisible Child by Andrea Elliot

The author of this book followed Dasani and her family for over eight years to gather an in depth look at the real time effect of poverty on a child growing up in New York City. Dasani is the oldest child of her mother, Chantal. Chantal grew up in poverty herself, never graduating high school, in and out of drug rehab, who had eight children and no consistent job history. Her mother helped her with child care up until her untimely death at a young age. Superior is not Dasani's father, but was Chantal's longest relationship and together they tried to keep the family together, even when it was in homeless shelter's. They both struggled with addiction, but both had limited time in jail, but both couldn't feed, clothe, or properly monitor all their kids with all the obligations put on them to keep city support. The kids were in public housing, homeless shelters, foster homes, and for a while Dasani was in a boarding school and then in a group home. The story is therefore better than it could have been and not at all good. The grinding nature of poverty is laid out in a balanced and readable story that reads like a memoir, but is based on literally hundreds of pages of documentation as well as first hand knowledge. A must read.