Review of "Escaping Poverty: Inspirational True Stories"

Review of

Escaping Poverty: Inspirational True Stories, by Reading Harbor  9780692574065

Five out of five stars

 The stories in this collection are truly inspirational and they cover a broad spectrum of backgrounds, from the person from another country to members of U. S. minorities to the Caucasian that hit a streak of bad luck. People that suffer(ed) from emotional and mental disorders are also included.

 The stories are almost all written by the person with the experiences, in one case the author is the sister of the person that experienced the poverty. Many of them also experienced the social stigma of being poor, sometimes it was other children that expressed their disdain and at other times it was the silent ridicule of adults. For example, while using their WIC allotments at a grocery store when the other people in line were made aware of it. 

 One of the saddest stories was one where the family lived in a poor neighborhood and tried to improve their situation by having a backyard garden and keeping their property neat. Some of their poor neighbors would yell derisive comments at them regarding their efforts.

 This is a set of snapshots of the wide variety of reasons for poverty in America (although there is a British story) as well as some of the ways in which a person can rise above it. That part is inspirational, but the reality is more unsettling. These people are not typical by any means, for they not only escaped poverty, they reached the point that they could write about it. That is of course a small percentage of the large numbers of people that struggle to make ends meet. 

This book was made available for free for review purposes