Children's Books From The 1950s

In American society, there are so many stereotypes and biases against people who are living in poverty. When we talk to children nigh poverty, we need to do then in means that challenge these stereotypes and point to the bigger systems that identify people in poverty. This listing of children's books about poverty and hunger will help children develop compassion, as well as an understanding of root causes of these issues.

Help kids explore the poverty and hunger with compassion using this collection of picture books & chapter books. — Prototype clarification: Book covers of The Streets Are Costless, Mama Miti, 1 Hundred Dresses, Yard Sale, and Ada's Violin. Text overlay: xviii children's books about poverty and hunger

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Children'due south books about poverty in the United States and Canada

Children's Books About Poverty | Global Poverty | Hunger and Poverty for Kids | Children's Book Lists | Diverse Kids Books — Image description: Cover of Yard Sale book. A young white child stands in front of her house next to a bike every bit her parents hold a 1000 sale.

Yard Sale by Eve Bunting and Lauren Castillo

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Reading this volume out loud will brought tears to my eyes. Callie's family is moving from their big house into a small flat. They have to sell about everything they own. Even Callie'south cycle is for sale, because at that place'southward no sidewalk outside their new apartment. Bunting and Castillo have captured the sadness of this issue without causing us to experience hopeless. (Recommended for ages three – seven).

Migrant by Maxine Trottier and Isabelle Arsenault

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I had no idea that at that place are Mennonites from Mexico who travel to Canada each summer as migrant workers. Migrant allows children to peek into their world through the eyes of Anna. Anna thinks of her family beingness like a flock of geese, going back and forth. She wonders what it would be similar to be instead be a tree, rooted in i place. (Recommended for ages iii – 7).

Image description: Embrace of Sunday Shopping book. A young Blackness daughter in purple pajamas is surrounded by cutting out pictures of items to buy.

Sunday Shopping by Sally Derby and Shadra Strickland

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While this whimsical book is not explicitly about poverty, I include it here because it shows how imagination and warmth can bring joy even if money is tight. Each Lord's day night, Evie and Grandma get gear up to become shopping by putting on their pajamas. That's because they "store" the Sunday papers, cut out pictures of the things they are buying with their play money. Their dreams are modest only nevertheless bring a lot of pleasance to both of them. (Recommended for ages 4 – 8.)

Each Kindness past Jacqueline Woodson and E.B. Lewis

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When a new girl named Maya shows up in school and tries to befriend Chloe, Chloe isn't sure why she turns away from her. Mayhap its because her clothes are ragged and she brings foreign food in her lunchbox. Maya gives Chloe many chances to evidence friendship, but she doesn't take whatsoever of them. One day, Maya isn't in that location.

Their instructor takes out a bowl or h2o and drops a rock in. Ms. Albert tells the children that each time we show kindness, it ripples out into the globe, merely similar the ripples from the rock. When Chloe learns that Maya has moved away, Chloe thinks almost what she might have done when she had the adventure. (Recommended for ages 6 – 10)

The Hard-Times Jar past Ethel Footman Smothers and John Holyfield

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This children's book about poverty is based on the writer's childhood in a migrant worker family unit. Emma loves to write stories. Correct at present, her "books" are fabricated of grocery sacks held together past safety pins, but she dreams of having existent shop-bought notebooks. She helps her parents earn extra coin to put in their "hard-times jar," but she knows that money isn't for extras like notebooks. Since her parents are migrant workers, hard times are sure to come up.

Emma is adamant to to earn enough extra picking apples that she can go her notebook, but and so her mother says that this harvest, she must become to school instead of working in the fields. How volition she ever get her real notebook? (Recommended for ages 6 – x).

This collection of children's books about poverty and hunger will help kids explore these issues with compassion and justice. — Image description: Cover of On Our Street: Our First Talk well-nigh Poverty. Several children walk down a street a run across a homeless person with a sign.

On Our Street: A First Talk about Poverty by Jilliam Roberts and Jaime Casap

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This is a straight-forward not-fiction children's book virtually poverty for the youngest readers. It focuses primarily on homelessness, although there are boosted sections on refugees and global poverty.

I similar the way the book focuses on questions that immature children are likely to have near poverty, its compassionate perspective, and its use of real photographs. However, I wish that it spoke more about systemic bug such as low-wage jobs and affordable housing. I recommend that adults add in some additional questions and perspectives that I highlight in this mail service on talking with children about poverty.

Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts and Noah Z. Jones

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Everywhere Jeremy looks, he sees other kids wearing those shoes: the black loftier tops with white stripes. Grandma reminds him that they must focus on what he needs (winter boots), not what he wants. When the sole comes off Jeremy'due south shoe at schoolhouse, the guidance advisor gives him a pair of shoes he finds embarrassing. Well-nigh all the other kids laugh when they run into them.

But perhaps at present Grandma volition become him a pair of those shoes? When all she kind is a thrift store pair that are too tight, Jeremy still insists he'll article of clothing them. But sore toes make him rethink his decision, and wonder who might savour the shoes more than. (Recommended for ages 4 – eight).

Coat of Many Colors by Dolly Parton and Brooke Boynton-Hughes

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Dolly Parton has turned her famous song Glaze of Many Colors into a children's volume. Her bulletin can instill pride in children who live in poverty, and discourage bullying by those who don't. She tells the story of how her mother made her a cute coat of patchwork rags. Dolly compared herself similar Joseph from the Bible, feeling rich in the multicolored glaze. But when she arrived at school, the other children didn't empathize the dearest that went into her coat, making fun of it.

While Dolly's letter to children at the end of the volume acknowledges the pain she felt from their teasing, the story itself communicates that it's the other children's perspective that is wrong, non what Dolly wears. (Recommended for ages three – 7).

Tía Isa Wants a Car by One thousand thousand Medina and Claudio Muñoz

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Even though she can walk to everywhere she has to go, Tía Isa wants a car so that she can become to the beach. After all, she grew upwards right next to the beach on the isle where she used to live.

But saving for a car isn't piece of cake, when half of Tía'southward extra money goes back dwelling to their family unit on the island. When her niece starts telling people well-nigh Tía's car dream, she discovers that there are many ways she can help this wish become reality. (Recommended for ages 5 – ix).

Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman

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In a divided, impoverished neighborhood in Cleveland, a immature Vietnamese daughter decides to start a garden. All she does is plant a few bean seedlings in a vacant lot filled with garbage. Still, it doesn't take long for other neighbors to notice and build upon what she is doing. The 13 chapters are each told by a dissimilar neighbor, and reveal the prejudices, suspicions, hopes, and talents that live in this community that the remainder of the city has forgotten. (Recommended for ages 12+).

The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes and Louis Slobodkin

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This classic book, written in 1944, is sure to assistance children develop empathy towards kids like them who struggle with poverty. Wanda Petronski, a Polish immigrant in a small town, seems strange to many of the other girls in her class. She wears the same faded dress to school every 24-hour interval, but claims she has 100 dresses at dwelling house.

When her best friend Peggy begins teasing Wanda every day nigh the dresses, Maddie is uncomfortable. Maddie is no stranger to poverty. She has to clothing other people's manus-me-downs. Volition saying something to Peggy mean the end of their friendship? When Wanda stops coming to school, Maddie has to remember long and hard about her silence. (Recommended for ages 7 – 12).

Children's books about poverty throughout the world

Mama Panya'due south Pancakes by Mary and Rich Chamberlin and Julia Cairns

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My son and I both love this engaging story that helps children learn about the power of community.

As Mama Panya and her son Adika travel to the market to buy ingredients for her succulent pancakes, Adika invites every person he sees to dinner. Mama Panya grows increasingly anxious almost how she will feed such a large crowd. Adika is not concerned, repeating his mother's phrase that she has "a lilliputian bit and a trivial fleck more," sure that it will be enough.

The volume too includes nine pages of illustrated educational notes almost village life, Kiswahili greetings, and Mama Panya'south pancake recipe. (Prepare in Kenya, recommended for ages four -8).

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Beatrice's Goat by Page McBrier and Lori Lohstoeter

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This is the true story of how ane Ugandan child's life was changed past the souvenir of a caprine animal from Heifer International. Beatrice helps her mother care for their garden, tends their chickens, and takes intendance of her younger siblings. She sometimes watches the children outside the schoolhouse, wishing she could exist 1 of them. Her mother can't beget the fees for books and uniforms.

When Beatrice'southward family is chosen as ane of twelve who'll receive a goat, she doesn't understand why her mother is then pleased. Subsequently Mugisa arrives, she begins to see how the creature can alter her future. (Recommended for ages 4 – viii).

Image clarification: Cover of Ane Grain of Rice. An Indian woman wearing a ruby sari stretches out her arms toward the heaven.

One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale past Demi

Who would recollect a story about famine and multiplication could be and so engaging? One time in India there lived a raja who kept nearly all the state'due south rice for himself. Fifty-fifty during a fourth dimension of famine, he was selfish. When the raja offers to advantage Rani for a honest act, all she asks him for is one grain of rice, which he will double each 24-hour interval for thirty days. In the process, she teaches him a valuable lesson about hoarding. Demi's miniature paintings will convey even to younger children how the quantity of rice grows over fourth dimension. (Recommended for ages 4 – 10).

Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya by Donna Jo Napoli and Kadir Nelson

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In this story of Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, children learn of the power of trees to solve problems of poverty, hunger, sickness, and drought. Each type of tree is attached to a particular person. This slows the story'due south pace plenty for children to grasp about these big bug. Kadir Nelson'south stunning illustrations volition make yous feel as if you are standing correct next to the women every bit they plant their precious trees. (Recommended for ages 4- ix).

Ada's Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay by Susan Hood and Sally Wern Behave

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When I think of a town built on a landfill, it's hard for me to imagine annihilation other than survival and despair.Ada's Violin challenged my stereotypes in telling the true story of a instructor and a group of children who learned to brand beautiful music with their recycled instruments.

It's truly a tale of community, with the boondocks'southgancheros (recyclers who discover materials to sell in the dump) figuring out what landfill materials could be used to brand instruments. The book follows the children's journey to far away lands where they open for a famous rock band. They discovered that "cached in the trash was music. And buried in themselves was something to exist proud of." (Set in Paraguay, recommended for ages 5 – 10).

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The Streets are Free by Kurusa and Monika Doppert

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This is the true story of a group of children from the barrio San Jose de la Urbina in Caracas, Venezuela, who but wanted a place to play. Their impoverished community is then crowded that they cannot even play in the streets. With the aid of a librarian, the children make up one's mind they will printing their Mayor to give them a playground. Their bravery prompts their customs to rally behind them. (Recommended for ages six – 10).

Chandra's Magic Lite: A Story in Nepal by Theresa Heine and Judith Gueyfier

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Sisters Chandra and Deena are intrigued when they see a homo selling solar tukis (cookstoves) at the market. They realize that if their family could take a solar tuki rather than a kerosene one, their baby brother's cough would become away. The girls make information technology their mission to earn the money needed for the tuki.

The book includes 7 pages of bonus material on Nepali daily life, besides as instructions on how to brand a solar oven from a pizza box. (Recommended for ages half-dozen – 10)

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One Hen: How One Modest Loan Made a Big Difference by Katie Smith Milway and Eugenie Fernandes

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Kojo helps his mother gather and sell firewood, but there is never enough to practise more than survive. When twenty of the families in their village pool their money for a loan fund, there'southward a chance for change. Children follow Kojo through the purchase of his first hen, whose actress eggs he will sell at the market, to the poultry farm he develops equally an adult, where he gives out loans of his own. (Recommended for ages 6 – 10).

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Eliana longs to serve God with her gifts, but isn't sure what to offering. Inspired by her rabbi's sermon, she decides to offer God her bread, since she is the all-time bakery in boondocks. She bakes two of her almost extraordinary challah loaves, and places in the Holy Ark in the synagogue.

Unknown to her, Samuel, who sweeps the synagogue flooring, comes along a bit later. As he sweeps he prays to God considering his children are hungry just he has no coin for the Sabbath meal. Finishing his prayer, Samuel notices that the Ark is open. He spots the challah and thanks God for providing it for his family. This goes on each week for years, without Eliana and Samuel knowing about each other'due south actions, until the rabbi discovers the situation. Will he understand how God is at work? (Recommended for ages 6 – 12).

Mimi's Hamlet and How Bones Health Care Transformed Information technology by Kate Smith Milway and Eugenie Fernandes

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One day when in that location is no clean water available on their long journey to home, Mimi lets her little sister Nakkissi have a drink from a stream. The adjacent day Nakkissi becomes sick, and her mother must take them to the neighboring hamlet to see the nurse. Mimi learns about simple cures that the nurse offers there, and wishes that her community could take its ain dispensary.

This fictional story introduces children to the real life basic interventions that brand a tremendous difference in the lives of children facing poverty. (Recommended for ages six – 10).

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Rickshaw Girl past Mitali Perkins and Jamie Hogan

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Naima is a talented painter, creating beautiful alpana patterns that Bangladeshi women pigment in their homes for special occasions. But when her father cannot bring in enough money from his rickshaw business to support them, she wishes she were a male child so that she could help him drive the rickshaw.

Naima decides she will clothes every bit a male child and try to drive information technology while her begetter is asleep, but her efforts end in disaster. When her mother decides they must sell the wedding bangle that has been in her family for years, Naima is desperate to find a way to aid their family earn money. (Recommended for ages seven – 12).

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Serafina'southward Hope by Anne E. Burg

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Serafina'southward dream of becoming a doctor seems almost impossible as she lives in a remote village in Haiti where her mother always needs her assist at abode. When Serafina's home is done away in a flood, she fears that her dream has also disappeared. The encouragement of her friend Julie Marie, every bit well as the back up of a adult female medico, gives Serafina backbone to inquire her parents if she can become to school. This haunting novel in poetry is one that older children and adults akin can appreciate. (Recommended for ages 10+).

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