May’s pick was Andrea Elliott’s, Invisible Child, a detailed account of Dasani, an 8-year old child growing up and maneuvering through the intricate complexities of New York’s foster care system, welfare system, and her own family’s systemic shortcomings that will inevitably set Dasani up for failure. Andrea follows Dasani closely over a period of 8 years to document as much as possible and highlight shortcomings of how poverty is dealt with.
As much as a reporter attempts to be agnostic of anything being reported on, over the years, there is always SOME bias. People may read this and mention that bias…or bring up oversimplified arguments such as “well, its their fault for being in that state…even after countless opportunities”. To such people…I think you might have missed the argument of the book. One thing that MOST people agree on is that children are often ignored and do not have a voice in political matters or really, anything that will directly affect them…they are children after all. Yet, they are forced to deal with what the rest of the public vote for. Andrea uses this idea, Dasani in New York as a microcosm for the rest of the country to highlight these pitfalls and shortcomings of the American welfare and foster care system.
I encourage everyone to read this book and be open to what what Andrea is arguing, leaving our own bias as voting adults behind. Up to date information on Dasani and shorter articles on her can be found on Andrea’s site here: https://www.andrea-elliott.com/.
9/10 read.