One of the most informative, jaw dropping, heart wrenching books I’ve ever read, this is a must for all. With clarity and professionalism, Elliott follows a family caught in the cycle of poverty over a decade. The systems that exist perpetuate issues and need a complete overhaul to ensure they’re working towards best outcomes. Dasani and her family will always be in mind as I advocate for justice, vote for justice, and teach for justice. So grateful to Dasani’s family for sharing their story so that those not caught in these systems have a better understanding. Thanks to netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Just truly amazing.
In the style of Random Family, the reporting is so up close and personal. A breathtaking read.

Invisible Child
Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
by Andrea Elliott
Pub Date 05 Oct 2021
Random House Publishing Group - Random House, Random House
Biographies & Memoirs | Multicultural Interest




I am reviewing a copy of Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City through Random House Publishing Group - Random House, Random House and Netgalley:





Invisible Child by Pulitzer Prize winner Andrea Elliott follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani, a girl whose imagination is as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn shelter. Elliot weaves the story of Dasani’s childhood with the history of her ancestors, tracing their passage from slavery to the Great Migration north.



As Dasani comes of age, New York City’s homeless crisis has exploded, deepening the chasm between rich and poor. She must guide her siblings through a world riddled by hunger, violence, racism, drug addiction, and the threat of foster care. Out on the street, Dasani becomes a fierce fighter “to protect those who I love.” When she finally escapes city life to enroll in a boarding school, she faces an impossible question: What if leaving poverty means abandoning your family, and yourself?




I give Invisible Child five out of five stars!



Happy Reading!

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 book is nonfiction, but reads like fiction. While reading this I had to keep reminding myself it was fiction. The writing of this family's story is superb! In between the telling of this family's story, the writer (a NYT journalist) explains the reasons (politics / laws/gentrification ) for the generational poverty this family and many others like them have experienced. Not only is this an amazing true story but we are also able to see the "why" of the story.

I loved the Alex Kotlowitz classic, There Are No Children Here, so I was excited to see that that work inspired Andrea Elliott to write Invisible Child. Along the same lines as Kotlowitz's book, Invisible Child follows a homeless family in New York City as they navigate the shelter system, child protective services, and family court. At the center of this family headed by parents Chanel and Supreme is eldest daughter Dasani, who seems to hold all the hopes of the family on her shoulders.
Elliott takes us to journalism school with her writing; she is barely evident throughout the narrative which spans something like 12 years. This reads like a novel, and I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happened to Dasani and the family.
It was devastating to watch the children and parents sink deeper into despair with every investigation, housing loss, and other setbacks. However, this story does a great job of illuminating just how hard it is to survive when your basic needs are not met, and how important love and support are for communities to thrive.
Learning the statistics of how many black families are separated was quite shocking, as was seeing the reality of how many caseworkers just walk away when there is no way for these children to walk away.
This is another social justice classic.

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.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book and give a honest review! This is a gut wrenching true story which follows the life of 11 year old Dasani and her family as they struggle with poverty, homelessness the separation of their family and the fight to be reunited! At many parts it is heartbreaking and then there is the show of strength and unity and the power of a mothers love and love of the mother.
Very well written book, now I am finding myself craving more of this story! I could not put it down until every page was read!

When Invisible Child first came out in The NY Times in 2013, I spent an entire day at my work cubicle engrossed in the story. I have thought about Dasani and her family often over the years, and when I saw Andrea Elliott had transformed their story into a book, I knew it would be a hard but important read.

This book is a gut wrenchingly sad portrayal of poverty and generational trauma. Everyone should read this, but be warned - it’s raw and devastating at times, and it’s going to leave you frustrated that our systems fail so many, generation after generation.

Andrea Elliott’s writing and reporting is nothing short of incredible. This is a book that will stay with you.

A very well researched and compelling tale of childhood poverty and growing up in NYC. I requested this book because I had read the original NYT series that this came out of. I was so curious to learn more about the story and was blown away by the author’s writing. This book did not disappoint me. It is a heavy but extremely well told story with many good insights on Dasani’s life.

The Invisible Child is a heart wrenching story of homelessness poverty in America.We follow Dasini and her siblings through eight years in their lives.Poor hungry struggling to survive caring for her brothers and sisters.Her spirit shines through the story of her life.I still think of her and her struggles hoping she will survive and thrive.#netgalley #randomhouse.

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?

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for gifting me a digital ARC of this unforgettable story by Andrea Elliott - 5 stars.

Dasani Coates was born into a life of poverty, drug abuse and neglect, even with married parents with the best of intentions. As the almost-oldest, Dasani had to take on the role of parent to her 7 siblings from a very early age. The author, NY Times writer and Pulitzer Prize winner, entrenched herself into this family's life for over a decade and was witness to the homeless crisis and fear of child protection agencies endured by so many. When Dasani is finally accepted into a boarding school in PA, her life seems nothing but bright. But the transition to become what was expected of her by the school meant leaving herself and her family behind.

This is an eye-opening look into how quickly people can get into no-win situations with bureaucracies that are supposed to help them. While not dismissing parental responsibility, this book will make you look at those slippery slopes of homelessness for so many with long-reaching pasts of poverty. But there is also hope - Dasani has teachers, administrators, counselors who do their best to help her succeed. My family has visited Hershey Park in PA and seen the school on the hill - this is also a fascinating look into that amazing situation that has the potential to turn around lives.

This is a must-read book - don't miss it!

I have insufficient words to comment on this outstanding book. It is a journey of approximately 8 years sharing the lives of a poor, sometimes homeless, family in New York City with special emphasis on the oldest, gifted daughter. The author has created a flawless and memorable look at the bureaucracy we’ve created to “help” the poor, the jobless, and/or the homeless people in our midst.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC to read and review.

This was a long read and I found lots of it repetitive. I understand the author was making a point about the system being broken and she sure did with this story. This book was sad and depressing but necessary. Homelessness, drug use, abuse, poverty, neglect, mental health struggles and more are all connected with this family. I could easily see how the cycle of poverty and lack of parenting lead to MORE poverty and lack of parenting.

I was hoping for more of a story and less of a report. This was a factual, detailed report of Dasani's life and the struggles of her family. It saddens me to think that there are so many other families in the same situation in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.

Andrea Elliot did an absolutely phenomenal job of chronicling not only the life of Dasani and her family, but also the systemic issues and policy failures that led to her family’s struggles.
The story is heartbreaking and hard to read. I had to step away and come back many times in order to finish. This is a story that is necessary because it shows us exactly how so many families like Dasani’s have slipped through the cracks.

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.

***Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review***

This is a 4.5 rounded up to 5 stars because it is a well-told narrative of how our systems fail to help individuals and families, and yet I am still slightly uncomfortable with what it means to have a privileged white woman tell the story. As the book gains popularity, I'd be curious to hear more about how Andrea Elliott will pass the mic/pen and help amplify those who have been and are currently working to dismantle the oppressive systems and build better ones.

There is no denying that the writing of this book is great. It flows well between people and times, and Elliott includes important background information on policy, politics, history, and more so that the reader can better understand how it all plays out in the life of one family and one child. Dasani, the girl around which most of the book revolves, is the lovable human face upon which is reflected the many failings of our society. We shouldn't have to exploit her story in order to feel something about these issues, yet at the same time there's no doubt that it is highly effective. On the flip side, it is important to remember that there are very real consequences for real live people whenever decisions are made by those higher up. There is a delicate balance to be struck between using someone's story and empowering them to share it if they so choose.

In any case, I finished reading this book feeling infuriated. The bureacratic bullshit was mind-boggling, like when the children had to miss school to line up and wait to be re-admitted into the system, just because of a missed curfew. It really goes to show how our society expects people to pull themselves up by the bootstraps while simultaneously infantilizing them and putting hurdle upon hurdle in front of them. This book also makes a good case for community care, such as family taking in the children of those who died from AIDS or raising children collaboratively. Marginalized people have always had to be creative in how they lived because the system never gave them any other option. If only we just listened to them, we'd see that they have the knowledge and experience to come up with their own solutions.

And just like that, I want a follow-up from Dasani and her family about their own ideas of how to best support the unhoused and what they believe would have made a difference in their own story.

This is a very detailed description of an urban family caught in the labyrinth of welfare, food stamps, foster care, child protective services, drugs, rehab, and court appearances, all while desperately trying to free themselves from the very services that are supposed to be helping them. It is a subject I admit I knew nothing about, and this book is an eye opening introduction. I highly recommend it.

Invisible Child is a record of one girl’s journey as observed by a reporter. I found the family history of Dasani and her extended family interesting. The author uses a lot of statistics to make her case. I read a wide array of books amd try to look at different perspectives. Part of the story is sad and depressing, others are uplifting and inspiring.