Below you'll find books dealing with poverty & issues of class disparity. For print books in the SHS Learning Commons, see Ms. Melbourne, Ms. McCullough, or Ms. Reishus if you need help locating copies. To access eBooks & audiobooks in MackinVia, log in with your school credentials. To access print, eBooks, & audiobooks through the Scott County Library, use your Virtual Student Library Card.
Don't Fail Me Now by
African American teen Michelle cares for her two siblings in urban Baltimore while their mother is in jail. Leah and her stepbrother Tim, both white, live in a middle-class suburb of Maryland. Michelle and Leah share the same father who abandoned them--Buck Devereaux. When the two learn Buck is dying, the whole group embarks on a road trip to California to see him one last time.
Maid by
Shares insight into life below the poverty line through her own struggles as a low-income single mother, the author offers an eye-opening glimpse into the meager hope offered to those who must rely on government assistance to survive even as they work themselves to a state of exhaustion with little respect, inadequate compensation, and only their hope and determination to keep them putting one foot in front of the other.
The Spaces Between Us by
Outcasts and best friends Serena Velasco and Melody Grimshaw strive together to survive senior year and break away from their rural factory town.
The Glass Castle by
An autobiography of writer Jeannette Walls who grew up in a creative but dysfunctional family. During Walls' early life her family moved among Southwest desert towns and camped in the mountains, while her alcoholic parents spent time painting and writing rather than feeding their family. Later the family settled in a West Virginia mining town where the children had to fend for themselves until they found the resources to leave home.
Don't Fail Me Now by 
Don't Fail Me Now by
African American teen Michelle cares for her two siblings in urban Baltimore while their mother is in jail. Leah and her stepbrother Tim, both white, live in a middle-class suburb of Maryland. Michelle and Leah share the same father who abandoned them--Buck Devereaux. When the two learn Buck is dying, the whole group embarks on a road trip to California to see him one last time.
Being Fishkill by
Born in the backseat of a moving car, Carmel Fishkill was unceremoniously pushed into a world that refuses to offer her security, stability, love.
The Glass Castle by
Walls has written a stunning and life-affirming memoir about surviving a willfully impoverished, eccentric, and severely misguided family.
Jackpot: All Bets are off by
Meet Rico: high school senior and afternoon-shift cashier at the Gas 'n' Go, who after school and work races home to take care of her younger brother. Every. Single. Day. When Rico sells a jackpot-winning lotto ticket, she thinks maybe her luck will finally change, but only if she--with some assistance from her popular and wildly rich classmate Zan--can find the ticket holder who hasn't claimed the prize. But what happens when have and have-nots collide? Will this investigative duo unite...or divide?
The Glass Castle by
Walls has written a stunning and life-affirming memoir about surviving a willfully impoverished, eccentric, and severely misguided family.
The Glass Castle (Digital Audio) by
Walls has written a stunning and life-affirming memoir about surviving a willfully impoverished, eccentric, and severely misguided family.