I found this collection of writings from various authors quite interesting. My favorites were Mildred Taylor and Sylvia Wantanabe, and of course, Betty Smith. Those two stories touched me the most. I had read Roll of Thunder and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but it had been awhile and I was thrilled to be reconnected with those stories. This book is a worthy look at struggling in the face of poverty, both urban and rural. The lengths that people will go to to survive is amazing. ( )

In "A Question of Class" did I really start to connect with this book. Being raised low-middle class and now one step away from being on the street if not for my family. Like Dorothy Allison says, and I quote "My family's lives were not on television, not in books..." It hit me! When I was a kid I didnt know any different the older I got the more I realized we are all not alike nor are our actions and reactions the same like when we were children.

My young childhood was not nearly as dramatic as the authors, but I believe this story is written in such a way that even if you didn't grow up like her, you understood and are empathetic to her situation. It was one of my favorite's. Another great story was from "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston. Though the ebonics sometimes drove me crazy it was needed to create the story it did, the story of a grandmother telling her grand daughter some of her family history whether she wants to hear it or not. About them being colored so there's one strike against them, the daughter gets pregnant but leaves the baby with her mother. The grand daughter is the same age her mother when she started making bad choices and the grandmother wants the grand daughter to see how hard she worked to give her a good life b/c she musta made a misstak wit her daugher, the baby's mama, the granchile. (similar to the ebonics in the book at times, my thoughts). Ebonics were neccesary as the story took place in the rural, Deep South. It was also high on my list, but it was Hurston.

There were many great story's from different writing projects with teens coming from an extremely poor, abusive, dangerous or all of thee above. Some of the teens are very talented and I hope they were encouraged to pursue their gift and use it to their advantage, so they dont continue the family history circle of being "Poor in America" as the news calls it today (12/23/10). ( )