Also Known as Harper by Ann Haywood Leal

Also Known As Harper by Ann Haywood Leal

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


p243   grades 5-8

Subject matter for mature readers.

realistic fiction, poverty, homelessness, family, friendship, death, single parents, alcoholism, tragedy.

Story of a family that falls apart and spirals into poverty, eviction, and homelessness. The father developed alcoholism and has run away and left them penniless. Mother is a house cleaner struggling to feed the family and not able to pay rent. They are evicted and the family must leave everything behind and take only what fits into their car. Harper Lee, main character, and her brother, Hemingway, struggle with not being able to attend school due to hardship on their mother with basics of transportation while maintaining a job.The kids are left all day long to fend for themselves and meet other kids who also live in poverty and are homeless. They learn about a whole niche of people who are learning to deal with homelessness while maintaining some dignity and sense of themselves.

The story leaves you with a lesson of learning to see people and have empathy. To know that the people who live in poverty have a story and life to them and often have families they are struggling to keep together.

Quote from book: "If folks don't like the way you look, they almost never take the time to find anything out about you. They just make up their own stories." Dorothy Pine p146.



Similar to Fastest Friend in the West by Vickie Grove, How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O'Conner,  and Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor.



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