When I Was the Greatest

Reynolds, Jason. When I Was the Greatest. 2014. 240p. 363 mins. ISBN 978-0-553-39572-3. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Raised by a hardworking single mother, 15 years old Ali and his sister Jazz live in Bed Stuy, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. It's a hard neighborhood, one where drugs and guns are a fact of life. Instead, he's into boxing and he takes lessons with a former pro. When another boy and his family move in what is known in the neighborhood as the crack house, which happens to be next door to Ali's own brown stone apartment building, they become fast friends. That boy soon acquires the nickname Noodles from Jazz, on account of an incident that happens at their dining table, and the name sticks. 

Noodles has a brother, and he soon becomes known as Needles. Needles has Tourette's syndrome, and can't control his verbal and physical outbursts. Doris, Ali's mother, gives Needles knitting needles, and shows him how to knit, and that seems to help him remain calm and in control. Noodles has a short temper, and is very protective of his brother, but also abuses him relentlessly.

Ali, Noodles, and Needles spend a hot summer sitting on the steps of the apartment building, reading comics and talking about life. When they manage to score an invitation to Mo Mo's wild underground party, the teens are excited! However, when Needles' tick chooses the worst moment to occur, the boys find themselves in a place they shouldn't be with people who don't know them and are willing to hurt them.  Suddenly, life has become very dangerous ...

Told from Ali's perspective, the story occurs over one summer with some flashbacks. The teen boys have realistic friendships, and the female characters are in the periphery but are strong and helpful. Fans of realistic fiction will enjoy reading Ali's story and discover how he gets out of the mess he's created.

Olivia Twist

Langdon, Lorie. Olivia Twist. 2018. 331p. ISBN 978-0-310-76347-5. Available as an ebook on Overdrive. 

When her mother died in childbirth, newborn Olivia was left bereft. Looking at her pretty face, the attending physician asked the nurse to take care of the baby, but raise it as a boy for poor orphan girl children in Victorian England had very little prospects aside from peddling themselves for a few coins. Upon the nurse's own death, Ollie, as the child was known, was turned over to the workhouse, from where she promptly escaped, joining with a gang of boys and brought up under the protection of Jack, known under his criminal name as the Artful Dodger. For years, the streets of 1860s London were brutal and violent.

During a pickpocket incident gone wrong, Jack managed to steal a rich man's wallet, but Ollie was captured and abandoned. Luckily she was recognized by the victim as his long lost niece, and was adopted back into the Brownlow family. Now, years later, Olivia has joined high society, but keeps track of several street boys whom she feeds and clothes. With her engagement to Max Grimwig coming, Olivia will secure her financial future, but at the cost of marrying someone she doesn't really care for.

When Jack reappears, Olivia is struck by how handsome he is and how he has evidently joined high society as well. As the adopted nephew of a well-known socialite, Jack moves around hi those rarified circles, stealing valuable objects from the inside. When he recognizes Olivia as Ollie, Jack is also quick to fall in love. However, the reappearance of Monks, the well-known street lord, in the slums of London puts all of the street orphans in danger. When Jack realize that Monks is after Olivia, he vows to stop him, even if this means putting his own life in danger.

A retelling of Oliver Twist with a female protagonist, this tells the story of a strong character dedicated to saving as many children as possible, even if this means skirting what is proper in her society. Jack can be both endearing and enraging at the same time, and the way they bumble through their budding relationship is very realistic. Fans of historical fiction with a splash of mystery will love this book!

A Framework for Understanding Poverty: A Cognitive Approach

 Payne, Ruby K. A Framework for Understanding Poverty: A Cognitive Approach. 2013. 239p. ISBN 978-1-938248-01-6. Available at 362.5 PAY on the library shelves.

Poverty is a powerful force that shapes many of our students. This is even more so for people who are in the second or more generation living in poverty. The skills and methods of operation are very different than those of the middle class and of the wealthy few. Worries about money, unstable housing and food situations, shifting relationships, and low-skilled or no work make it hard to focus on a goal and future opportunities. Instead, people in poverty are concerned about survival on a daily basis. Entertainment becomes important. Keeping time, not so much. Students who come from poverty lack skills that are considered important in schools: attention to detail and follow-through; inability to plan complex multi-steps processes; and relationships that work through entertainment.

Through a cognitive approach, the author presents a series of case studies, questionnaires, and charts, and explains how the world of those who live in poverty operate differently from people in the upper economic classes. She proposes many solutions that schools can implement to assist these students in gaining the skills they need to successfully operate in a middle class environment like a public school. She demonstrates how learning patterns can be changed for the better through simply devising strategies that address the core skills that these students lack, and not blame their poverty for their lack of success. All educators should read this book!  

The Jungle

 Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. 335p. 797 mins. ISBN 978-1-8843-6530-0. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Jurgis Rudkus is Lithuanian. Born in poverty in his country, he meets a beautiful girl named Ona Lukoszaite. Looking to escape their condition and seeking opportunity in the land of plenty, they along with others from their village pool the little money they have and immigrate to the United States. Traveling to Chicago, they quickly find work in the meatpacking industry. 

Packing Town, as the area they settle in is known, is very poor. It is drab, lonely, polluted, and one of the harsher environment they have ever been in. Jurgis is strong and dedicated, so they are convinced they will escape the fate that afflict many around them. They purchase a house, to avoid paying rent. They are confused when the people around them bitterly complain about the bosses who drive them ever further towards exhaustion. Don't they just need to work harder?

Jurgis and the rest of his group do not realize that the deck has been stacked against them. Their house is poorly isolated. The two-mile walk to work in the winter is hell. The factories are either too cold, too hot, or too wet. It is dangerous work where people get hurt or killed all the time. Women are exploited and abused. Jurgis and Ona disenchant very quickly about their new lives, but they have no more money and must continue to work.

Layoffs and accidents take a toll on the family friends. When Jurgis discovers that Ona has been forced to have an extramarital affair with her boss, he goes into a rage and attacks the man. This lands him in jail, and with the absence of their breadwinner, the family loses their house and their investment. Jurgis spirals towards the depth of despair. Ona dies in the childbirth of their 2nd son. Their first son dies in an accident. The group breaks up and goes their own way. 

Jurgis travels away in the summer, but returns to Chicago for the winter. He joins a political machine, and for a while his star rises. But an encounter with the same man who abused his wife Ona once again lands him in jail, and this time it is even harder to rebound. In the depth of despair, Jurgis discovers socialism, and after living through workers' hell for two years, he now understands what is attractive about socialism.

First published in 1905 as a serial then in a heavily censored book, The Jungle nevertheless forced changes at the federal level. Laws were passed to control the quality of food, work conditions, and the more blatant abuses that happened in the slaughter houses. An indictment of crude capitalism, The Jungle remains relevant today for the lessons that it provide about workers' right and economic abuse by the rich.