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Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City
The riveting, unforgettable story of a girl whose indomitable spirit is tested by homelessness, poverty, and racism in an unequal America—from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Andrea Elliott of The New York Times
Invisible Child follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani Coates, a child with an imagination as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn homeless shelter. Born at the turn of a new century, Dasani is named for the bottled water that comes to symbolize Brooklyn’s gentrification and the shared aspirations of a divided city. As Dasani grows up, moving with her tight-knit family from shelter to shelter, this story goes back to trace the passage of Dasani’s ancestors from slavery to the Great Migration north. By the time Dasani comes of age, New York City’s homeless crisis is exploding as the chasm deepens between rich and poor.
In the shadows of this new Gilded Age, Dasani must lead her seven siblings through a thicket of problems: hunger, parental drug addiction, violence, housing instability, segregated schools, and the constant monitoring of the child-protection system. When, at age thirteen, Dasani enrolls at a boarding school in Pennsylvania, her loyalties are tested like never before. As she learns to “code switch” between the culture she left behind and the norms of her new town, Dasani starts to feel like a stranger in both places. Ultimately, she faces an impossible question: What if leaving poverty means abandoning the family you love?
By turns heartbreaking and revelatory, provocative and inspiring, Invisible Child tells an astonishing story about the power of resilience, the importance of family, and the cost of inequality. Based on nearly a decade of reporting, this book vividly illuminates some of the most critical issues in contemporary America through the life of one remarkable girl.
Invisible Child follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani Coates, a child with an imagination as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn homeless shelter. Born at the turn of a new century, Dasani is named for the bottled water that comes to symbolize Brooklyn’s gentrification and the shared aspirations of a divided city. As Dasani grows up, moving with her tight-knit family from shelter to shelter, this story goes back to trace the passage of Dasani’s ancestors from slavery to the Great Migration north. By the time Dasani comes of age, New York City’s homeless crisis is exploding as the chasm deepens between rich and poor.
In the shadows of this new Gilded Age, Dasani must lead her seven siblings through a thicket of problems: hunger, parental drug addiction, violence, housing instability, segregated schools, and the constant monitoring of the child-protection system. When, at age thirteen, Dasani enrolls at a boarding school in Pennsylvania, her loyalties are tested like never before. As she learns to “code switch” between the culture she left behind and the norms of her new town, Dasani starts to feel like a stranger in both places. Ultimately, she faces an impossible question: What if leaving poverty means abandoning the family you love?
By turns heartbreaking and revelatory, provocative and inspiring, Invisible Child tells an astonishing story about the power of resilience, the importance of family, and the cost of inequality. Based on nearly a decade of reporting, this book vividly illuminates some of the most critical issues in contemporary America through the life of one remarkable girl.
602 pages, Hardcover
First published October 5, 2021
About the author
Andrea Elliott
3 books158 followersAndrea is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist who has documented the lives of poor Americans, Muslim immigrants and other people on the margins of power. She is an investigative reporter for The New York Times and the author of Invisible Child, which won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. She is also the recipient of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, a George Polk award, an Overseas Press Club award and was awarded a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,970 reviews
October 4, 2021
I am finding it somewhat difficult to write a review of this book without falling into a black hole of condemning our welfare/social services system. It is broken. It is incredibly horribly broken. I knew that before starting to read this book and can't imagine that anyone reading this book wouldn't finish feeling the same way. The dreaded feeling of wondering what bad thing would happen every time Dasani or something in her family got a step ahead was incredibly stressful. Knowing that this book was nonfiction and would not necessarily provide even a glimpse of a happy ending sometimes made it hard to continue. The whole situation was very overwhelming. And I was only reading the book, not living the life. I wish the right people would read books like this and realize that no the people on public assistance are not bilking the system and living some easy lazy life. Perhaps a look into the system we have forced on someone asking for a little assistance would change this country's mindset and result in some actual solid productive change?
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for a copy of the book. This review is my own opinion.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for a copy of the book. This review is my own opinion.
May 4, 2024
To Update: 5/13/22, this book just won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 2022. This was an incredibly well written and researched book. I think it well deserves this prize. Children need hope and possibility in life. Let’s hope we find a better way for all the lost children of this world. Congratulations, Andrea Elliott and the best to Dasani and her family. It was obvious the author cared very much about this story and this family.
This is a topic I am familiar with. I worked in a Domestic Violence shelter in NY, but on Long Island. I am not naive to NYC residents under the Giuliani Administration having to sit in an office building for 72 hours waiting for Emergency Shelter. Per NY law, our shelter, if it had space must offer NYC residents a place to stay, yet the services we could offer were much more limited unless the family wanted to remain on Long Island. Most did not. So, 5* for accuracy for this author who kept track of Dasani for 8 years and spoke so well about her life.
This book highlights how many good goals don’t happen. This is about Racism, but it really is about poverty. I understand they are intertwined. The author did a terrific job outlining the history of this family going back and explaining how the GI Bill and the ability to get a mortgage were denied to black and brown people. 99% of these loans went to White People. So, it helped pull many white families to a middle class life. This was done systematically. It was wrong, and this held people back.
The author selected Dasani because she had a spark for life. She was an intelligent and curious girl. Her upbringing was hard, and accepting her mother, Chanel’s decisions was difficult. There was so much uncertainty in Dasani and her siblings’ lives. Yet, her family was offered financial, emotional, and living help. Her mother struggled with addiction and mental health issues. Chanel’s mother also had the similar problems, but does break free from addiction and works full-time. When Chanel’s mother, Joanie was not able to care for her children, and her father passed away, his wife took Chanel in. This woman was stable and offered Chanel care and someone to rely on. I think most situations are a result of conditions with the system and government, but also individual choices do play a role. I don’t think Chanel ever took any responsibility for her choices. Dasani at 11 was looking after her siblings. She was acting as a mother. I know all this is very hard to change and many more leaders in their community who have successfully been able to lead productive lives would be excellent, to show hope for the newest generation. Dasani says over and over how she is not going to live a life like her mother’s one. She has dreams. She was given opportunities to make those dreams come true.
Dasani, I hope beyond hope can break away and achieve her goals. It’s a cycle, she tells her mother and it has been this way for several generations. I could care less what gives her that advantage, even if it was NYT reporting. Whatever, stops that cycle and brings a difference I support and would be so happy for Dasani. Yet, reading at the end, Dasani is in a gang just is crushing. It is the not an unexpected ending, but I made me feel so awful. It is incredibly disturbing. She is fighting to live with her mother, but I think the end result will not be the best for her. So, yes you need your family, but Dasani needs the ability to step away and do things differently. It made me cry reading this. Let her find her way somehow.
Thank you NetGalley, Andrea Elliott, and Random House for providing a copy of this book.
This is a topic I am familiar with. I worked in a Domestic Violence shelter in NY, but on Long Island. I am not naive to NYC residents under the Giuliani Administration having to sit in an office building for 72 hours waiting for Emergency Shelter. Per NY law, our shelter, if it had space must offer NYC residents a place to stay, yet the services we could offer were much more limited unless the family wanted to remain on Long Island. Most did not. So, 5* for accuracy for this author who kept track of Dasani for 8 years and spoke so well about her life.
This book highlights how many good goals don’t happen. This is about Racism, but it really is about poverty. I understand they are intertwined. The author did a terrific job outlining the history of this family going back and explaining how the GI Bill and the ability to get a mortgage were denied to black and brown people. 99% of these loans went to White People. So, it helped pull many white families to a middle class life. This was done systematically. It was wrong, and this held people back.
The author selected Dasani because she had a spark for life. She was an intelligent and curious girl. Her upbringing was hard, and accepting her mother, Chanel’s decisions was difficult. There was so much uncertainty in Dasani and her siblings’ lives. Yet, her family was offered financial, emotional, and living help. Her mother struggled with addiction and mental health issues. Chanel’s mother also had the similar problems, but does break free from addiction and works full-time. When Chanel’s mother, Joanie was not able to care for her children, and her father passed away, his wife took Chanel in. This woman was stable and offered Chanel care and someone to rely on. I think most situations are a result of conditions with the system and government, but also individual choices do play a role. I don’t think Chanel ever took any responsibility for her choices. Dasani at 11 was looking after her siblings. She was acting as a mother. I know all this is very hard to change and many more leaders in their community who have successfully been able to lead productive lives would be excellent, to show hope for the newest generation. Dasani says over and over how she is not going to live a life like her mother’s one. She has dreams. She was given opportunities to make those dreams come true.
Dasani, I hope beyond hope can break away and achieve her goals. It’s a cycle, she tells her mother and it has been this way for several generations. I could care less what gives her that advantage, even if it was NYT reporting. Whatever, stops that cycle and brings a difference I support and would be so happy for Dasani. Yet, reading at the end, Dasani is in a gang just is crushing. It is the not an unexpected ending, but I made me feel so awful. It is incredibly disturbing. She is fighting to live with her mother, but I think the end result will not be the best for her. So, yes you need your family, but Dasani needs the ability to step away and do things differently. It made me cry reading this. Let her find her way somehow.
Thank you NetGalley, Andrea Elliott, and Random House for providing a copy of this book.
January 18, 2022
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 time.
Many thanks to Netgalley and to publisher Hutchinson-Heinemann for an arc
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 time.
Many thanks to Netgalley and to publisher Hutchinson-Heinemann for an arc
July 18, 2022
This book is incredible. The sheer volume of reporting and time spent to embed with Dasani and her family. This is a true testament to how broken the system is and how vulnerable children and poor people really are. It’s a wow of scope and content and very worthy of the Pulitzer and all other accolades.
March 3, 2022
4.75 Stars (Rnd ⬆️) — I can’t escape this haunting, visceral, raw, intelligent & downright captivating beast of a book, even since finishing it it haunts me. Nonfiction just doesn’t come this good more than once or twice a year, and even that may not be doing it justice. Yes. It’s really that damn good!!!
Andrea Elliot is a journalist by trade, and you can feel her investigating every single moment she spends with The effervescent Dasani & her family with absolute diligence, without judgement or pretext — just pure unadulterated story-telling. This is what enables Dasani to come to life on the page, and to capture the hearts and minds of all whom read this devastating look at what life is really like for those below the poverty line in the dark underbelly of NYC.
Elliot doesn’t hold-back, every page is captivating, diverting and surpasses the the previous. Yet, she still somehow enables the story to unfold without ever forcing those key moments, or over-painting the portrait of Dasani and her incredibly distinctive family. Elliot allows the truth and the visceral rawness to jar the reader, to enthral and stun us into feeling every single passage, exactly as it is, without Fervour or fanfare, letting the pulse of the book to beat to its own heartbeat, no interference.
The prose unfolds in elegant unpretentious glory, so many paragraphs and sentences permeate the soul it’s intimidating to even think about singling any out. This is an experience, a journey and an allegory of modern-America that will remain a commentary of black Americans below the poverty line and how a system that’s broken manages to offer nothing but false hope and trickery to those whom are a victim of nothing more than society itself.
Dasani is a revelation, stealing every single chapter and doing it with style, grace and heart I’ve perhaps never felt so strongly before in a nonfiction novel. Exceptional. It’s rare to laugh, cry & vent disgust in the one page. This book made me feel this in the same sentence, multiple times. Enough said.
Andrea Elliot is a journalist by trade, and you can feel her investigating every single moment she spends with The effervescent Dasani & her family with absolute diligence, without judgement or pretext — just pure unadulterated story-telling. This is what enables Dasani to come to life on the page, and to capture the hearts and minds of all whom read this devastating look at what life is really like for those below the poverty line in the dark underbelly of NYC.
Elliot doesn’t hold-back, every page is captivating, diverting and surpasses the the previous. Yet, she still somehow enables the story to unfold without ever forcing those key moments, or over-painting the portrait of Dasani and her incredibly distinctive family. Elliot allows the truth and the visceral rawness to jar the reader, to enthral and stun us into feeling every single passage, exactly as it is, without Fervour or fanfare, letting the pulse of the book to beat to its own heartbeat, no interference.
The prose unfolds in elegant unpretentious glory, so many paragraphs and sentences permeate the soul it’s intimidating to even think about singling any out. This is an experience, a journey and an allegory of modern-America that will remain a commentary of black Americans below the poverty line and how a system that’s broken manages to offer nothing but false hope and trickery to those whom are a victim of nothing more than society itself.
Dasani is a revelation, stealing every single chapter and doing it with style, grace and heart I’ve perhaps never felt so strongly before in a nonfiction novel. Exceptional. It’s rare to laugh, cry & vent disgust in the one page. This book made me feel this in the same sentence, multiple times. Enough said.
October 10, 2021
Elliott deserves a second Pulitzer for this book, which Ayad Akhtar accurately describe's on the cover as "a future American classic." Invisible Child builds on a series of articles that Elliott wrote for the New York Times in 2013 about the life of Dasani, a homeless girl living in NYC, and her family. Elliott continued to follow the family for the next eight years, as Dasani goes away to private school in Pennsylvania for a shot at a better life and returns to NYC as a foster child. She also goes back in time to detail the lives of Dasani's ancestors, showing how the brutal legacies of slavery, redlining, the crack epidemic and other systems of poverty and racial discrimination entwined to lead the family to where they were.
This is undoubtedly one of the best nonfiction books of the year, and I'm hard pressed to think of a book of narrative journalism that measures up to its rigor and scope except for The Warmth of Other Suns, which Invisible Child feels like a spiritual successor to (Dasani's relatives were part of the Great Migration). The most breathtaking aspect of the book is the way it shows time after time how poverty is criminalized in this country. There were so many instances where being given material resources could have helped Dasani's family, but instead the government chose to penalize them--up to taking the parents' children away from them simply for the crime of being poor and homeless.
The insights of this book--that we live in a profoundly unequal society, that racism is deeply intertwined with other systems of oppression, that breaking the cycle of poverty is extremely difficult--will probably not be new to many of its readers. However, it's one thing to hear something stated as a fact and another entirely to read about its real-life effects for 400+ pages (another thing: while this book is long the way it is written makes it almost impossible to put down). As our country is once again discussing racism and inequality, I hope that many people will read this.
This is undoubtedly one of the best nonfiction books of the year, and I'm hard pressed to think of a book of narrative journalism that measures up to its rigor and scope except for The Warmth of Other Suns, which Invisible Child feels like a spiritual successor to (Dasani's relatives were part of the Great Migration). The most breathtaking aspect of the book is the way it shows time after time how poverty is criminalized in this country. There were so many instances where being given material resources could have helped Dasani's family, but instead the government chose to penalize them--up to taking the parents' children away from them simply for the crime of being poor and homeless.
The insights of this book--that we live in a profoundly unequal society, that racism is deeply intertwined with other systems of oppression, that breaking the cycle of poverty is extremely difficult--will probably not be new to many of its readers. However, it's one thing to hear something stated as a fact and another entirely to read about its real-life effects for 400+ pages (another thing: while this book is long the way it is written makes it almost impossible to put down). As our country is once again discussing racism and inequality, I hope that many people will read this.
November 17, 2023
A fabulous book. This is a journalistic account of one family’s struggle with poverty, homelessness and associated ills, closely observed over several years and written with thoughtfulness and insight. The author worked closely with the family, without whose collaboration such an intimate account could never have been written, but also brings perspective to the observation of their personalities and coping skills and the big picture that brought them to this point. The central figure is Dasani, the oldest daughter, who is 11 at the beginning and 19 at the end. But as her trajectory makes clear, the lives of a family are all intertwined.
The book begins following Dasani and her family when they are living in appalling conditions at a homeless shelter in New York City, and follows in particular their struggles with housing and education. Dasani is bright and athletic and outgoing, and for awhile it seems like her own exceptional qualities plus the publicity from the author’s initial series of articles will send her down a very different path from her family’s. She essentially wins the lottery, getting into a free private boarding school for poor children, which has both extremely deep pockets and a seemingly deep understanding of the hurdles these kids face.
But meanwhile, things go badly wrong for Dasani’s family as the parents’ limitations collide with the worst in the child protective services bureaucracy, and her siblings are put in foster care. I won’t spoil it because it’s a compelling story told with narrative flair, but their experiences make clear the pitfalls of trying to help children in need without also helping their adults, and of a child welfare model that equates poverty with neglect, as well as a great deal more.
There are a lot of great poverty books out there, but this one might actually be my recommendation for a starting point. The writing is compelling and readable, with lots of dialogue (real dialogue: either the author was there or the family was recording). The story is intense, and the people in it come to life, portrayed sympathetically but with complexity. Beyond the family themselves, the author also got to know those around them (in a poignant moment, Dasani’s middle school teacher also moves into a homeless shelter upon losing her affordable housing, but doesn’t tell the students).
The book doesn’t tell the reader how to think, but provides big-picture information from which we can draw conclusions. In a particularly inspired choice, Elliott traces Dasani’s predecessors, from her enslaved ancestors in North Carolina, through the great-grandfather who served in WWII and saw combat in Italy, only to be unable to take advantage back home of the benefits provided to white GIs—as a black man, no colleges would accept him, and he couldn’t get a mortgage or even a job making use of his skills as a mechanic, instead being relegated to menial work. His children grew up on the streets while he struggled to make ends meet, and the story also traces Dasani’s grandmother’s and mother’s lives, through high-crisis poverty, gang involvement, the AIDS crisis and more. This is not how these stories are usually told, and it’s striking how direct a line it is from racist policies decades ago to this family’s current situation.
All that said, this isn’t just a dire book full of misery: the family bonds are strong, and there is help and support from others too, as well as moments of levity. There’s a lot that is awful in it though, and the book doesn’t cast easy blame, but leaves readers to sit with some tough questions. My only real criticism is that it’s written in the present tense—I got over it, but for me that is a technique to be gotten over rather than one that adds value.
At any rate, while on it’s the long side, I found the pages to turn quickly, and this is a book I’d absolutely recommend to anyone interested in learning more about poverty in America, through the real stories of people living it.
Also, for those who liked this one, below are some other books I recommend and see as its spiritual kin: all books dealing with poverty and exploring in various ways its intersections with racism, trauma, addiction, and the failings of the system, as well as family, community, education, and belonging:
Narrative nonfiction:
Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx
Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family
On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City
Narrative + analysis:
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction
To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care
The Second Chance Club: Hardship and Hope After Prison
Analysis:
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Poverty, by America
Memoirs:
Heavy
Dog Flowers
The Distance Between Us
Heartland
Fiction:
The Strangers
The Women of Brewster Place
The book begins following Dasani and her family when they are living in appalling conditions at a homeless shelter in New York City, and follows in particular their struggles with housing and education. Dasani is bright and athletic and outgoing, and for awhile it seems like her own exceptional qualities plus the publicity from the author’s initial series of articles will send her down a very different path from her family’s. She essentially wins the lottery, getting into a free private boarding school for poor children, which has both extremely deep pockets and a seemingly deep understanding of the hurdles these kids face.
But meanwhile, things go badly wrong for Dasani’s family as the parents’ limitations collide with the worst in the child protective services bureaucracy, and her siblings are put in foster care. I won’t spoil it because it’s a compelling story told with narrative flair, but their experiences make clear the pitfalls of trying to help children in need without also helping their adults, and of a child welfare model that equates poverty with neglect, as well as a great deal more.
There are a lot of great poverty books out there, but this one might actually be my recommendation for a starting point. The writing is compelling and readable, with lots of dialogue (real dialogue: either the author was there or the family was recording). The story is intense, and the people in it come to life, portrayed sympathetically but with complexity. Beyond the family themselves, the author also got to know those around them (in a poignant moment, Dasani’s middle school teacher also moves into a homeless shelter upon losing her affordable housing, but doesn’t tell the students).
The book doesn’t tell the reader how to think, but provides big-picture information from which we can draw conclusions. In a particularly inspired choice, Elliott traces Dasani’s predecessors, from her enslaved ancestors in North Carolina, through the great-grandfather who served in WWII and saw combat in Italy, only to be unable to take advantage back home of the benefits provided to white GIs—as a black man, no colleges would accept him, and he couldn’t get a mortgage or even a job making use of his skills as a mechanic, instead being relegated to menial work. His children grew up on the streets while he struggled to make ends meet, and the story also traces Dasani’s grandmother’s and mother’s lives, through high-crisis poverty, gang involvement, the AIDS crisis and more. This is not how these stories are usually told, and it’s striking how direct a line it is from racist policies decades ago to this family’s current situation.
All that said, this isn’t just a dire book full of misery: the family bonds are strong, and there is help and support from others too, as well as moments of levity. There’s a lot that is awful in it though, and the book doesn’t cast easy blame, but leaves readers to sit with some tough questions. My only real criticism is that it’s written in the present tense—I got over it, but for me that is a technique to be gotten over rather than one that adds value.
At any rate, while on it’s the long side, I found the pages to turn quickly, and this is a book I’d absolutely recommend to anyone interested in learning more about poverty in America, through the real stories of people living it.
Also, for those who liked this one, below are some other books I recommend and see as its spiritual kin: all books dealing with poverty and exploring in various ways its intersections with racism, trauma, addiction, and the failings of the system, as well as family, community, education, and belonging:
Narrative nonfiction:
Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx
Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family
On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City
Narrative + analysis:
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction
To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care
The Second Chance Club: Hardship and Hope After Prison
Analysis:
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Poverty, by America
Memoirs:
Heavy
Dog Flowers
The Distance Between Us
Heartland
Fiction:
The Strangers
The Women of Brewster Place
January 22, 2022
I was invited to read and review this book by Random House and Net Galley, and immediately I accepted, because it’s right in my wheelhouse. However, I also understood that it would be a painful read, and I postponed it for months, because 2021 was already a terrible year, and I wasn’t feeling brave. So my apologies for the delay; at the same time, this book is not quite as wrenching as I expected, and the research and writing are stellar. It’s for sale now.
Dasani Coates is the firstborn child of an impoverished, disorganized African-American mother with few marketable skills. She is named after the premium brand bottled water, because her mom thinks it’s a beautiful name. (Wait till you see what the next baby’s name will be!) They live in Brooklyn, and not long after Dasani is born, she has a sister. And another. And another, and then eventually a brother and a couple of step-siblings. None of them are the result of poor family planning; all are planned and wanted. But at the same time, they have very few resources, and the slender safety net provided by relatives doesn’t last forever; and the city fails to protect its most vulnerable denizens.
As a retired teacher that worked in high poverty schools, I have seen families similar to this one, and the children suffer the most, every stinking time. I’ve also seen children take on the role that Dasani assumes without ever planning to do so, that of the adult in the house (when there is a house,) caring for a large group of tiny people when the actual adult isn’t adulting. If you watch closely enough for long enough, it can eat you alive; as for the far-too-young surrogate parent, I have seen them cope admirably, right up until they become adults themselves, and often, it is then that they fall apart. I don’t know whether that holds true for Dasani, because we don’t see her as an adult, but I can well imagine.
Elliott, a Pulitzer winning journalist from The New York Times, follows this family closely for eight years, sometimes sleeping on the floor of their house or apartment. In her endnotes, she explains her methodology, her relationship to the family during this project, and the parameters determined by the paper, for whom she originally did this research. Dasani was the subject of a front page series on poverty in New York which ran for five days. Elliott’s documentation is impeccable, and she can write like nobody’s business.
Because I am running behind, I check out the audio version of this book from Seattle Bibliocommons, and I want to give a shout out to Adenrele Ojo, the narrator, who is among the very best readers I’ve yet encountered. Though I continue to use my review copy at times, I like Ojo’s interpretation of the voices for each of the large number of characters so well that I find I prefer listening to reading.
As I read, I become so attached to Dasani that I skip to the end—which I almost never do—because if she is going to get dead, I need to brace myself for it. I’ll tell you right now, because for some of you, this might be a deal breaker, and I’d hate for you to miss this important biography: it’s dark, but not that dark.
I don’t find myself feeling nearly as sympathetic toward Dasani’s mother, Chanel, as the author does, but I do think Dasani’s stepfather, who is the only father she knows, gets a bad, bad break. He jumps through every single bureaucratic hoop that is thrown at him in an effort to get some help for the seven children left in his care, and every time, the city turns its back on him, right up until a social worker comes calling, finds that they don’t have the things they need, and takes his children. This made me angrier than anything else, apart from a few boneheaded, destructive things that Chanel does.
For those that care about social justice and Civil Rights issues, this book is a must read. I highly recommend it to you.
Dasani Coates is the firstborn child of an impoverished, disorganized African-American mother with few marketable skills. She is named after the premium brand bottled water, because her mom thinks it’s a beautiful name. (Wait till you see what the next baby’s name will be!) They live in Brooklyn, and not long after Dasani is born, she has a sister. And another. And another, and then eventually a brother and a couple of step-siblings. None of them are the result of poor family planning; all are planned and wanted. But at the same time, they have very few resources, and the slender safety net provided by relatives doesn’t last forever; and the city fails to protect its most vulnerable denizens.
As a retired teacher that worked in high poverty schools, I have seen families similar to this one, and the children suffer the most, every stinking time. I’ve also seen children take on the role that Dasani assumes without ever planning to do so, that of the adult in the house (when there is a house,) caring for a large group of tiny people when the actual adult isn’t adulting. If you watch closely enough for long enough, it can eat you alive; as for the far-too-young surrogate parent, I have seen them cope admirably, right up until they become adults themselves, and often, it is then that they fall apart. I don’t know whether that holds true for Dasani, because we don’t see her as an adult, but I can well imagine.
Elliott, a Pulitzer winning journalist from The New York Times, follows this family closely for eight years, sometimes sleeping on the floor of their house or apartment. In her endnotes, she explains her methodology, her relationship to the family during this project, and the parameters determined by the paper, for whom she originally did this research. Dasani was the subject of a front page series on poverty in New York which ran for five days. Elliott’s documentation is impeccable, and she can write like nobody’s business.
Because I am running behind, I check out the audio version of this book from Seattle Bibliocommons, and I want to give a shout out to Adenrele Ojo, the narrator, who is among the very best readers I’ve yet encountered. Though I continue to use my review copy at times, I like Ojo’s interpretation of the voices for each of the large number of characters so well that I find I prefer listening to reading.
As I read, I become so attached to Dasani that I skip to the end—which I almost never do—because if she is going to get dead, I need to brace myself for it. I’ll tell you right now, because for some of you, this might be a deal breaker, and I’d hate for you to miss this important biography: it’s dark, but not that dark.
I don’t find myself feeling nearly as sympathetic toward Dasani’s mother, Chanel, as the author does, but I do think Dasani’s stepfather, who is the only father she knows, gets a bad, bad break. He jumps through every single bureaucratic hoop that is thrown at him in an effort to get some help for the seven children left in his care, and every time, the city turns its back on him, right up until a social worker comes calling, finds that they don’t have the things they need, and takes his children. This made me angrier than anything else, apart from a few boneheaded, destructive things that Chanel does.
For those that care about social justice and Civil Rights issues, this book is a must read. I highly recommend it to you.
July 2, 2022
Interesting premise but long-winded account. This book follows a precocious girl in a chronically homeless family over a 9 year period. I found Dasani interesting but bright and wished Elliot had spent more time on her instead of randomly infusing New York City politics, slavery and family history. I found these intrusions took away from the main story and were distracting. I also think the author did not keep Dasani and her parents accountable for their decisions.
Elliot wanted to blame the welfare and foster care system for all the family's woes when that was not always the case. For example, Chanel brought a weapon twice to 'defend' her daughter during a fight. Is that what a mother should do? Is that normal behavior for a parent?
None of this was brought up at all. Instead Elliot depicted the parents and kids as victims of an ineffective system. This perspective is what is wrong with modern day progressivism. There should be an equal focus on decision making and flaws of public benefits systems. Overall a predictable read that did not challenge the subjects to seek accountability.
Elliot wanted to blame the welfare and foster care system for all the family's woes when that was not always the case. For example, Chanel brought a weapon twice to 'defend' her daughter during a fight. Is that what a mother should do? Is that normal behavior for a parent?
None of this was brought up at all. Instead Elliot depicted the parents and kids as victims of an ineffective system. This perspective is what is wrong with modern day progressivism. There should be an equal focus on decision making and flaws of public benefits systems. Overall a predictable read that did not challenge the subjects to seek accountability.
September 5, 2022
Should be ranked among the best investigative reporting pieces ever written. I'm ashamed to say I began this book with the sting of judgement in the back of my mind for it's subjects, until I began to realize what they were up against - a sisyphus-esque struggle that can't be won. Most people are content to tell people like the subjects of this book to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, few people could handle the herculean effort that is required to do so. It seems that far from the myth of being the lazy leeches society tends to believe poor people are -- they are in fact, extremely diligent and hard working.
This book could be considered a companion piece to one of the greatest documentaries of all time, "Hoop Dreams", which followed two young, gifted African American basketball players from an impoverished neighborhood, for nearly a decade. That was originally scheduled to be a thirty minute PBS special, and it morphed into something larger as the creators understood what was going on. The length is crucial - you can't expose a life of poverty in half an hour. Most people understand poverty in terms of days, hours, or weeks. The only way to fully appreciate the hurdles, pain, exhaustion, and difficulty of being poor, however, is if you show it over the course of years and decades. Because the hurdles, pain, exhaustion and difficulty never cease. They are there when you wake up, and they are there when you go to bed. The only relief is drugs, which everyone who is not poor will insist they would never get into under the circumstances, just like tough guys claim they'd punch out their drill instructor in the Army if they yelled at them, only to quiver in their boots when push comes to shove.
This book could be considered a companion piece to one of the greatest documentaries of all time, "Hoop Dreams", which followed two young, gifted African American basketball players from an impoverished neighborhood, for nearly a decade. That was originally scheduled to be a thirty minute PBS special, and it morphed into something larger as the creators understood what was going on. The length is crucial - you can't expose a life of poverty in half an hour. Most people understand poverty in terms of days, hours, or weeks. The only way to fully appreciate the hurdles, pain, exhaustion, and difficulty of being poor, however, is if you show it over the course of years and decades. Because the hurdles, pain, exhaustion and difficulty never cease. They are there when you wake up, and they are there when you go to bed. The only relief is drugs, which everyone who is not poor will insist they would never get into under the circumstances, just like tough guys claim they'd punch out their drill instructor in the Army if they yelled at them, only to quiver in their boots when push comes to shove.
December 27, 2021
You will experience every emotion imaginable at one point or another in this book. Andrea Elliott picks up the story or Dasani Coates and her family where her New York Times 2013 series left off. Them Dasani was 11, living in a single room in Brooklyn homeless shelter with her mother, stepfather, and seven siblings. As the oldest girl, she is "parentified" (a word I learned from this book)--acting as the mother of her siblings, getting them up, getting them dressed, getting them to the shelter's free breakfast, getting them to school on time. All the kids have promise, but Dasani is special, she has drive, she is happy to be mentored by her teachers and coaches. She's eighteen at the end of the book. Will she be able to realize some or any of her potential?
"Invisible Child" should be read by everyone. Andrea Elliott's writing is tough and poignant, a terrific piece of reportage. This story will stick with you. Read it.
Many, many thanks to Random House and Netgalley for access to this remarkable book.
"Invisible Child" should be read by everyone. Andrea Elliott's writing is tough and poignant, a terrific piece of reportage. This story will stick with you. Read it.
Many, many thanks to Random House and Netgalley for access to this remarkable book.
May 21, 2022
A reporter embeds herself in an impoverished family with eight children and follows them until the eldest daughter, Dasani, is an adult. Honestly, I am not quite sure what to conclude from this very compelling piece of narrative non- fiction other than we really have yet to figure out how to save children from anything . . .the failures of parenting, government, schools, . . .anything.
Interestingly, Dasani is accepted to the Hershey School which literally does everything possible to provide for a child's needs . . .all the financial support, professional "parents", counselors, education, etc. And yet, in this case, even that wasn't really the answer.
Very worthwhile reading just as a starting point for understanding . . .but I found this story to be heartbreaking in so many ways.
Interestingly, Dasani is accepted to the Hershey School which literally does everything possible to provide for a child's needs . . .all the financial support, professional "parents", counselors, education, etc. And yet, in this case, even that wasn't really the answer.
Very worthwhile reading just as a starting point for understanding . . .but I found this story to be heartbreaking in so many ways.
November 23, 2021
This was a really good read as the author did a wonderful job with her writing (except for a couple location errors). It didn't feel like you were reading a heavy, statistical non-fiction book. The content is tough to read...sad and heartbreaking at times and very frustrating other times.
October 28, 2021
This book is a masterpiece. There, I said it. The sheer feat of reporting this must have taken is Herculean, and the product is masterful. Written in a matter-of-fact tone, Elliott chronicles the life and trials of Dasani (and her family) over her formative years, detailing both general happenings and minute thoughts. Like most others, I first read of Dasani in the NYT series many moons ago, and I never forgot her story. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Elliott’s initial feature changed my worldview and my life. I was in j-school at the time, and seeing how powerful reporting could be in real time was important for an aspiring journalist wanting to make her mark in this world.
And that’s why this book was such a triumph. Elliott herself states that the most remarkable thing she learned while reporting this story was how little had changed. Even after fame and recognition by the NYC mayor, the family never gets the happy ending we think would come. Life does not get better, in fact, it gets worse. Good things happen. Then bad, then terrible, then unthinkable. But ultimately this is a story of a familial love different from what is considered “typical” or acceptable to the general public. They might have atypical values, support systems or ways of expressing their feelings, but that doesn’t make them any more different or unworthy.
Although this was written plainly, it was organized and paced so well that I was at the edge of my seat, wanting to know what happened to Dasani at the end. I appreciated how we heard perspectives from many sides, and Elliott did a good job presenting a fair and balanced view of what happened. Nothing is as simple as it seems. Stealing, drug-dealing, fighting are all symptoms of a disease. I struggled a lot with assigning “blame” even as a reader, and I’m sure Elliott must have had her opinions and feelings while spending time with the family. I wonder if she ever shared them with her subjects.
The author afterword was tremendous. The statement on why the Coates/Sykes family continuously let her in during the worst times of their lives rings true - because she kept showing up, and they needed and trusted people who showed up. I still have so many feelings that I will need to process. But know that this book is a must read. Rarely have I read something that is both so easy and incredibly difficult to digest. It is a masterpiece.
And that’s why this book was such a triumph. Elliott herself states that the most remarkable thing she learned while reporting this story was how little had changed. Even after fame and recognition by the NYC mayor, the family never gets the happy ending we think would come. Life does not get better, in fact, it gets worse. Good things happen. Then bad, then terrible, then unthinkable. But ultimately this is a story of a familial love different from what is considered “typical” or acceptable to the general public. They might have atypical values, support systems or ways of expressing their feelings, but that doesn’t make them any more different or unworthy.
Although this was written plainly, it was organized and paced so well that I was at the edge of my seat, wanting to know what happened to Dasani at the end. I appreciated how we heard perspectives from many sides, and Elliott did a good job presenting a fair and balanced view of what happened. Nothing is as simple as it seems. Stealing, drug-dealing, fighting are all symptoms of a disease. I struggled a lot with assigning “blame” even as a reader, and I’m sure Elliott must have had her opinions and feelings while spending time with the family. I wonder if she ever shared them with her subjects.
The author afterword was tremendous. The statement on why the Coates/Sykes family continuously let her in during the worst times of their lives rings true - because she kept showing up, and they needed and trusted people who showed up. I still have so many feelings that I will need to process. But know that this book is a must read. Rarely have I read something that is both so easy and incredibly difficult to digest. It is a masterpiece.
June 12, 2022
This is a moving/infuriating/devastating critique of the failures of the welfare and social services systems. It's told through the story of one child, Dasani, who lives with her parents and seven siblings in a single room in a dilapidated Brooklyn shelter. It highlights countless absurd administrative requirements, such as homeless services requiring children to skip school to get case numbers for shelter intake or child protection services checking children for bruises while offering nothing for those same kids whose families can't afford food. The most striking moments showcase how much of social services just relies on surveillance of poor communities of color rather than offering meaningful support. The book is at its best when focused on the personal lives of Dasani and her family—these parts deserve 5 stars.
With a more careful edit, this book could've been a couple hundred pages shorter, and its necessary portrayal of the failures of these systems could've reached a much wider audience. Backgrounds of almost every caseworker, doctor, or teacher the family meets, histories of the buildings they enter, and even lyrics to songs heard in the background of parties are all included. Many of the book's most moving scenes get interrupted with interesting, but unnecessary, details—when Dasani is accepted to a boarding school for low-income children, several pages are dedicated to the creator of Hershey's chocolate who founded the school; when her siblings are forced into the foster care system, Elliott takes time to summarize a movie Dasani is watching. Individually these details would be fine, but almost every chapter gets sidetracked with information that could've been cut to highlight the family's struggle more closely.
With a more careful edit, this book could've been a couple hundred pages shorter, and its necessary portrayal of the failures of these systems could've reached a much wider audience. Backgrounds of almost every caseworker, doctor, or teacher the family meets, histories of the buildings they enter, and even lyrics to songs heard in the background of parties are all included. Many of the book's most moving scenes get interrupted with interesting, but unnecessary, details—when Dasani is accepted to a boarding school for low-income children, several pages are dedicated to the creator of Hershey's chocolate who founded the school; when her siblings are forced into the foster care system, Elliott takes time to summarize a movie Dasani is watching. Individually these details would be fine, but almost every chapter gets sidetracked with information that could've been cut to highlight the family's struggle more closely.
October 8, 2022
When I heard about this book, I knew it was a must-read for me. Deep investigative journalism about extremely complex societal problems and a painfully broken system? Sounds like an informative and thought-provoking read…I'm in.
I was not disappointed. The reporter, Amanda Elliott, immerses herself in the life of Dasani Coates and her family over the course of eight years, and it is a painful eight years for Dasani and her seven siblings…poverty, separation, foster care, unimaginable choices. The book is captivating and represents a terrific piece of reporting. Elliott dives deep into the cycle of poverty by going back generations through Dasani's family to explain the challenges, both mental and societal, that make it so hard to break the cycle. Elliott also digs into the broken US welfare system and how a number of the procedures and rules often exacerbate the problems they are trying to solve. Dasani's story also highlights how small actions and encouragement from some caring adults can potentially change the course of a child's life. "Nothing counts like the people who show up."
However, around the 400th page, I admit that the book started to feel kind of long. Elliott is hyper-detailed throughout: sharing the backgrounds of all the many people influencing the course of the Coates family; explaining the history of various locations they visit; and providing pages of historical information of various policies and leaders impacting the welfare system. It's all interesting, but after the first few hundred pages, I started to wish Elliott had skimped on some of the detail since it was starting to make the book feel unnecessarily long. It became clear that the real events experienced by Dasani and her family didn't need additional assistance in conveying Elliott's intended messages.
This book is obviously not a light read due to both the length and the topics covered, and there's definitely no fairy tale ending to be found here. But it is an undoubtedly insightful and enlightening read. Dasani and her family are going to stick with me for awhile, and the way Elliott chronicled their story brilliantly showcases the deep complexities of poverty and racism in America. If you enjoy investigative journalism books and have an interest in social justice, I highly recommend this one.
I was not disappointed. The reporter, Amanda Elliott, immerses herself in the life of Dasani Coates and her family over the course of eight years, and it is a painful eight years for Dasani and her seven siblings…poverty, separation, foster care, unimaginable choices. The book is captivating and represents a terrific piece of reporting. Elliott dives deep into the cycle of poverty by going back generations through Dasani's family to explain the challenges, both mental and societal, that make it so hard to break the cycle. Elliott also digs into the broken US welfare system and how a number of the procedures and rules often exacerbate the problems they are trying to solve. Dasani's story also highlights how small actions and encouragement from some caring adults can potentially change the course of a child's life. "Nothing counts like the people who show up."
However, around the 400th page, I admit that the book started to feel kind of long. Elliott is hyper-detailed throughout: sharing the backgrounds of all the many people influencing the course of the Coates family; explaining the history of various locations they visit; and providing pages of historical information of various policies and leaders impacting the welfare system. It's all interesting, but after the first few hundred pages, I started to wish Elliott had skimped on some of the detail since it was starting to make the book feel unnecessarily long. It became clear that the real events experienced by Dasani and her family didn't need additional assistance in conveying Elliott's intended messages.
This book is obviously not a light read due to both the length and the topics covered, and there's definitely no fairy tale ending to be found here. But it is an undoubtedly insightful and enlightening read. Dasani and her family are going to stick with me for awhile, and the way Elliott chronicled their story brilliantly showcases the deep complexities of poverty and racism in America. If you enjoy investigative journalism books and have an interest in social justice, I highly recommend this one.
December 19, 2021
Wow. Damn. This book. I am so angry at our country. Why do we spend more money to tear families apart than it would take to support them and keep them together. Are we really just so blind as to what it means to separate children and parents? Are we unable to understand that this means the same thing to others as it would mean to us? Chanel asks a woman in the court system how hard it is for her to leave her dog for a night, and asks her to translate that to how hard it must be to have children taken away. This basic human understanding is missing from our policies and institutions, and that lack is evil, and makes our policies and institutions evil.
February 8, 2023
Invisible Child was an uncomfortable read. . . but I am grateful for the 10 years Andrea Elliott spent observing and writing of, and the years Dasani and her family open themselves up for close up and personal imposition. It speaks to the desperation and hope that must fill the living spaces when a family, individuals in a domestic group, contribute daily to the message they all are choosing to express with that kind of willingness and forbearance. It is admirable and inspiring to go as deep as they have.
In this read one becomes very wrapped up in Dasani and her family, her role in the family as a responsible child. One becomes very aware of all the childhood experiences she misses, and those she unfortunately doesn't miss. Mixed blessings, for sure. Persistent poverty and homelessness are circumstances they greet everyday, yet each move forward with varying degrees of tenacious expectation of more than simple survival. The author brings this awareness to the reader and shows - holding back nothing - the reality of how our history, culture, objectives, coupled with our determination to look away, to not see this, not read this, not speak about it has been the go-to for so many generations it is traceable in whole families and communities. Putting a name on it, finding people who are willing to be seen is a gift to everyone, anyone who will hear, who will see, who will pay attention to the message.
That said, it is hard. When I closed the book, I was desperate to see what had happened, how were they, how was, is, this brave warrior girl, her siblings, and unnamed others? And, shame on me, just like always, I wanted . . .so wanted. . .to find some happy online ending that would relieve me of worry and concern. Absent such a find, I'm left with a suspicion that there is something that needs doing that I'm not doing.
So, Andrea Elliott, and Miss Dasani - I will read on, finding more uncomfortable books and looking for ways to find helpful work and responses to your mighty observations and intrepid examples to all of us, helping us see and reach out to EVERY child in our circle of living who may be living an invisible life - whether by choice, or by no particular choice of their own.
In this read one becomes very wrapped up in Dasani and her family, her role in the family as a responsible child. One becomes very aware of all the childhood experiences she misses, and those she unfortunately doesn't miss. Mixed blessings, for sure. Persistent poverty and homelessness are circumstances they greet everyday, yet each move forward with varying degrees of tenacious expectation of more than simple survival. The author brings this awareness to the reader and shows - holding back nothing - the reality of how our history, culture, objectives, coupled with our determination to look away, to not see this, not read this, not speak about it has been the go-to for so many generations it is traceable in whole families and communities. Putting a name on it, finding people who are willing to be seen is a gift to everyone, anyone who will hear, who will see, who will pay attention to the message.
That said, it is hard. When I closed the book, I was desperate to see what had happened, how were they, how was, is, this brave warrior girl, her siblings, and unnamed others? And, shame on me, just like always, I wanted . . .so wanted. . .to find some happy online ending that would relieve me of worry and concern. Absent such a find, I'm left with a suspicion that there is something that needs doing that I'm not doing.
So, Andrea Elliott, and Miss Dasani - I will read on, finding more uncomfortable books and looking for ways to find helpful work and responses to your mighty observations and intrepid examples to all of us, helping us see and reach out to EVERY child in our circle of living who may be living an invisible life - whether by choice, or by no particular choice of their own.
September 15, 2021
Thank you Netgalley and Random House for sharing this stunning book. I was not familiar with the 2013 NYT series on Dasani and her family, who are the focus of this book. Similar to books like Evicted or Just Mercy, this opened my eyes to the systemic problems faced by poor families in a new way. Prior to reading this, I understood these problems existed but in such an abstract way. The immediacy of this reporting expanded my understanding and put my empathy into a type of hyper-drive. I was engaged from the first page, going to bed anxious every evening wondering what was next and what the outcome of the family would be. As another reviewer said, you will experience every emotion while reading this. At the conclusion, I feel angry and sad over aspects of our broken social welfare system. Towards the end of the book, Chanel (the family’s mom) looks through a window at a list of other names and cases waiting for social services and wonders about their stories, and that was the thought I had as well. I wholeheartedly recommend this and I hope everyone reads it, especially those with the power to change things.
And lastly, thanks to Michael Kindness for recommending this.
And lastly, thanks to Michael Kindness for recommending this.
November 21, 2021
Read it. If you haven't already, also read Random Family, by Nicole LeBlanc. Reframe any bootstraps narrative you may have by following these hard-working, dogged, resilient children who have no boots.
March 22, 2023
Wow! This is one of those books that I will never forget. Detailed review to come. But, bottom line ... DO NOT MISS THIS BOOK!
March 5, 2023
A masterpiece of a book, an epic in journalistic form. Captivating, well-written, and heartbreaking, with the perfect balance of narrative, history, and perspective. This felt voyeuristic at times to read, but to Elliott’s credit she stayed with the family for a decade as both a journalist and a confidante which was moving and meaningful.
November 2, 2021
Hmm, it might be 4.5… I have to sit with it. This book is painful and touching, as any investigative book wherein the reporter focuses on one person or family can be. You get to know Dasani’s family intimately and you both root and sigh in exasperation learning the choices the family makes/the choices imposed on them by the welfare system. There is hope (Dasani’s educational prowess, new apartments, vouchers that actually help) and utter loss (Khaliq’s life, the temperament and addiction of the parents, poor Papa, and Lele, and Nana). I loved this book for all the same reasons I loved Evicted by Matthew Desmond: it mixes the sociology and lived experience with the casework and governmental systems. (I can’t get over how it would have been cheaper to have an in-home aide employed by the city than the stipends given to foster families after separating the children - and it would’ve kept the family intact.)
This book would benefit being 100 pages shorter and having less repetition. I also would have loved seeing photographs in the book from the NYT. I spent a long time yesterday trying to find pictures of Papa, Khaliq, and Supreme.
This book would benefit being 100 pages shorter and having less repetition. I also would have loved seeing photographs in the book from the NYT. I spent a long time yesterday trying to find pictures of Papa, Khaliq, and Supreme.
December 4, 2021
A family in and out of homeless shelters, foster care. going through or dropping out of school. fighting to get their children back. It is so gratifying that they found a lawyer who could actually help them sue those systems.
Invisible Child is incredibly good!!
I didn't know anything about it, just wanted to get an impression when the library bought it and instead continued listening for a couple of days until I was done.
I really appreciated how the ethics and interpersonal difficulties of the situation of reporting on and befriending the family over so many years were discussed. And the reporting and storytelling itself is also done so well. I was really captured by the story and then very impressed by the execution of the whole book.
Invisible Child is incredibly good!!
I didn't know anything about it, just wanted to get an impression when the library bought it and instead continued listening for a couple of days until I was done.
I really appreciated how the ethics and interpersonal difficulties of the situation of reporting on and befriending the family over so many years were discussed. And the reporting and storytelling itself is also done so well. I was really captured by the story and then very impressed by the execution of the whole book.
November 1, 2023
Absolutely worthy of the Pulitzer. A tragedy of epic proportions that shows how the fate of many Americans has been shaped for many generations, especially those of the poor and racial minorities, especially Blacks. Shows the incredible fortitude you need simply to survive if you are born among the most unfortunate, and how these characteristics that are needed to make it through each day actually prevent you from leaving that very reality. Also a very good argument why separating families for any reason should be done only as a last resort. Highly recommended.
November 16, 2022
I can see why this has got so many rave reviews: when I was reading I was totally immersed in Dasani’s story, and when I wasn’t reading I was thinking about the book. This isn’t to say it’s perfect (I had a few issues) but I think fans of long-form journalistic style books will find much to appreciate here.
June 24, 2022
What a story. This constantly broke my heart.
Invisible Child tells the story of the Coates family over about ten years in their life. This story focuses on Dasani, the eldest daughter. Dasani becomes a second mother to her siblings as they navigate poverty, houselessness, their parents' addictions, hunger, segregated schools and CPS. When Dasani is admitted to the Hershey school, her problems could be seemingly over, but Dasani's loyalty to her family keeps trying to pull her back to the city.
If I learned anything in this, it's that NYC is not trying to actually combat houselessness and poverty during the time this is set. And I'm sure this can be applied to many other cities. The way the city and CPS tried to address poverty was so convoluted and there wasn't anything to address to root causes of poverty: systemic racism, healthcare inequity, capitalism. Also there were so many issues in CPS itself and the way the Coates family case was handled was awful. I'm not sure if it's gotten any better, but I can hope right?
Either way, this was an engaging story about young Dasani and her family.
CWs: Child neglect, cursing. Moderate: addiction, drug use, alcohol consumption, alcoholism, violence, police brutality, death, drug abuse, gun violence, mental illness, racism, suicidal thoughts, toxic relationship (romantic, between parents), abandonment, sexual harassment, emotional abuse, panic attacks, forced institutionalization, grief, murder, injury/injury detail, ableism, bullying, self harm.
Invisible Child tells the story of the Coates family over about ten years in their life. This story focuses on Dasani, the eldest daughter. Dasani becomes a second mother to her siblings as they navigate poverty, houselessness, their parents' addictions, hunger, segregated schools and CPS. When Dasani is admitted to the Hershey school, her problems could be seemingly over, but Dasani's loyalty to her family keeps trying to pull her back to the city.
If I learned anything in this, it's that NYC is not trying to actually combat houselessness and poverty during the time this is set. And I'm sure this can be applied to many other cities. The way the city and CPS tried to address poverty was so convoluted and there wasn't anything to address to root causes of poverty: systemic racism, healthcare inequity, capitalism. Also there were so many issues in CPS itself and the way the Coates family case was handled was awful. I'm not sure if it's gotten any better, but I can hope right?
Either way, this was an engaging story about young Dasani and her family.
CWs: Child neglect, cursing. Moderate: addiction, drug use, alcohol consumption, alcoholism, violence, police brutality, death, drug abuse, gun violence, mental illness, racism, suicidal thoughts, toxic relationship (romantic, between parents), abandonment, sexual harassment, emotional abuse, panic attacks, forced institutionalization, grief, murder, injury/injury detail, ableism, bullying, self harm.
March 3, 2022
Our government’s role in overlooking issues of poverty, and at times contributing to the problem, is appalling. Time after time our politicians created policies that failed to make any significant progress towards lifting people PERMANENTLY out of poverty or created policies that ended up working against the very people meant to benefit. Multiple times Dasani’s family reached a place of stability only to slip back into homelessness or be split apart due factors largely out of their control. I’m struggling to understand how society can expect children experiencing homelessness to just magically make it out of poverty when their situation presents challenges that no young child or any human being should have to deal with. When the ACS split up Dasani’s family, you can clearly identify the repercussions that followed. The ACS’ decision caused irreversible damage for Dasani and her siblings. The kids, all younger than 15, had to manage without their support system, destroying their mental health and placing them under severe stress. There is truly no excuse for a government run program stealing children from their parents, when the family’s clear wish and need were to be together. The system we have takes those experiencing poverty and beats them down rather than providing necessary, concrete help. Every single person needs food and housing without exception, something that seems so obvious yet Dasani’s family and so many others consistently lack despite their efforts to get help from the government. The journalism in this book was absolutely incredible, the best I’ve ever read. I also have so much respect for Dasani and her family for sharing their story, one that everyone needs to bear witness to until the injustices described in this book no longer exist. If you’ve read to the end of this wow🤩
September 15, 2022
500 stars. An incredible tour de force. Well-deserving of a Pulitzer. The writing was perfection - clear, concise, engaging - and the story it told was so completely compelling that I couldn't put it down. We're talking hiding in my room to read and reading in the car at stoplights kind of situation!!! It was around 600 pages, but I wanted more and gobbled it up. Reminded me a lot of Random Family, which I read probably 10-15 years ago and loved just as much.
Totally captivating, thought-provoking, and eye-opening. Definitely gave me a LOT of empathy, would love to discuss with others! Highly, highly recommend.
A couple of parts that stood out in particular:
Out of nearly 71,000 mortgages insured by the GI Bill in New York and northeastern New Jersey in 1950, less than 1 percent went to nonwhite veterans. Yet home ownership was key to accruing wealth. White American families would eventually amass a median net worth nearly ten times that of Black families. Put another way, the exclusion of African Americans from real estate—not to mention college, white-collar jobs, and the ability to vote—laid the foundations of a lasting poverty that Dasani would inherit.”
“Money was so tight that the following year, in 1994, Chanel agreed to have some teeth pulled. A dentist in East New York was offering a subway token, worth $1.25, for each tooth. Working from a dingy office on Pennsylvania Avenue, he billed Medicaid for this scam. None of that mattered to Chanel, Roach, Margo, or Joanie, all of whom had teeth pulled. Chanel remembers her body thrashing in pain as strangers held her down in the chair. The dental office charged Medicaid $235 for pulling four of Chanel’s teeth. She left with a few subway tokens.”
Totally captivating, thought-provoking, and eye-opening. Definitely gave me a LOT of empathy, would love to discuss with others! Highly, highly recommend.
A couple of parts that stood out in particular:
Out of nearly 71,000 mortgages insured by the GI Bill in New York and northeastern New Jersey in 1950, less than 1 percent went to nonwhite veterans. Yet home ownership was key to accruing wealth. White American families would eventually amass a median net worth nearly ten times that of Black families. Put another way, the exclusion of African Americans from real estate—not to mention college, white-collar jobs, and the ability to vote—laid the foundations of a lasting poverty that Dasani would inherit.”
“Money was so tight that the following year, in 1994, Chanel agreed to have some teeth pulled. A dentist in East New York was offering a subway token, worth $1.25, for each tooth. Working from a dingy office on Pennsylvania Avenue, he billed Medicaid for this scam. None of that mattered to Chanel, Roach, Margo, or Joanie, all of whom had teeth pulled. Chanel remembers her body thrashing in pain as strangers held her down in the chair. The dental office charged Medicaid $235 for pulling four of Chanel’s teeth. She left with a few subway tokens.”
April 15, 2023
Tal prefaced my reading of this book with: 'this should be required reading for all New York City high school students' - and I couldn't agree more. Even though I've grown into a love of fiction, most high schoolers are more interested in the immediate world around them. It's a time of discovery, but admittedly, you discover the world available to you. The newfound freedom of the time makes it hard to realize how many spaces in New York aren't available to you (or really: how unavailable your spaces are to so many, namely the 70K homeless). The world painted here was not and could not be a part of the world I was painting for myself, but it would have enriched, complicated, and detailed it.
I've never read a book quite like this. Her ability to become an omnipotent narrative of an entire family from a different world is one of the most impressive things I've seen between the pages. I read most of this on the 7 train shuttling back between Citi Field and the UPW, passing one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the country twice a day. I felt a closeness to the city I haven't felt before in those moments.
I've never read a book quite like this. Her ability to become an omnipotent narrative of an entire family from a different world is one of the most impressive things I've seen between the pages. I read most of this on the 7 train shuttling back between Citi Field and the UPW, passing one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the country twice a day. I felt a closeness to the city I haven't felt before in those moments.
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