poverty

An abridged retelling of the Margaret Sidney story in which a fatherless family, happy in spite of its impoverished condition, is befriended by a very rich gentleman.

Angry and humiliated when his sharecropper father is jailed for stealing food for his family, a young black boy grows in courage and understanding by learning to read and through his relationship with his devoted dog Sounder.

Although he is the best linebacker in town, Tony must make a difficult choice between continuing to play football and helping his family when his mother loses one of her two jobs, his younger brother starts to go astray, and Tony himself is struggling to pass his math class.

When eighth-grade school bully Tod and his friends get caught committing a crime on school property, his penalty--staying after school and writing in a journal under the eye of the school guidance counselor--reveals aspects of himself that he prefers to keep hidden.

In Victorian England, poverty-stricken, orphaned siblings Joe and Annie escape from the abusive farmer they work for and try to survive in Manchester, with help from a friendly tramp, a mysterious dog-woman, and a renegade printer who supports the rights of the poor.

Twelve-year-old Artie Wilson, tired of plowing, planting, and milking the cow on her family's farm during the Great Depression, is determined to escape her life of poverty in Buck Creek, Kentucky, and hopes that school will open the door to a better future.

The Pepper family, including the widowed Mrs. Pepper and her five children, are happy despite their poverty, but conditions improve when they are befriended by Jasper King and his very wealthy father.

Examines the issue of homelessness, discussing causes and possible solutions.