Invisible Child

Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City

By: Andrea Elliott

Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo

Length: 21 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A “vivid and devastating” (The New York Times) portrait of an indomitable girl—from acclaimed journalist Andrea Elliott

“From its first indelible pages to its rich and startling conclusion, Invisible Child had me, by turns, stricken, inspired, outraged, illuminated, in tears, and hungering for reimmersion in its Dickensian depths.”—Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies

ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Atlantic, The New York Times Book Review, Time, NPR, Library Journal

In Invisible Child, Pulitzer Prize winner Andrea Elliott follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani, a girl whose imagination is as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn shelter. In this sweeping narrative, Elliott weaves the story of Dasani’s childhood with the history of her ancestors, tracing their passage from slavery to the Great Migration north. As Dasani comes of age, New York City’s homeless crisis has exploded, deepening the chasm between rich and poor. She must guide her siblings through a world riddled by hunger, violence, racism, drug addiction, and the threat of foster care. Out on the street, Dasani becomes a fierce fighter “to protect those who I love.” When she finally escapes city life to enroll in a boarding school, she faces an impossible question: What if leaving poverty means abandoning your family, and yourself?

A work of luminous and riveting prose, Elliott’s Invisible Child is like a novel. It is an astonishing story about the power of resilience, the importance of family and the cost of inequality—told through the crucible of one remarkable girl.

Winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize • Finalist for the Bernstein Award and the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award

©2021 Andrea Elliott (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“A vivid and devastating story of American inequality.”—The New York Times

“A classic to rank with Orwell.”—The Sunday Times

“Andrea Elliott’s Invisible Child swept me away. Filled with unexpected twists and turns, Dasani’s journey kept me up nights reading. Elliott spins out a deeply moving story about Dasani and her family, whose struggles underscore the stresses of growing up poor and Black in an American city, and the utter failure of institutions to extend a helping hand. Invisible Child is a triumph.”—Alex Kotlowitz, bestselling author of There Are No Children Here

Superlative reporting, Heartrending story telling

In Andrea Elliott’s reporting, Dasani and her family come to life. I fell in love with that smart, proud, sassy, loving girl, and will root for her success always. Her family may have left something to be desired, but there are no perfect families. This is the human side of racism, poverty, and addiction. I feel like sending this book to Mitch McConnell.
I must also praise the voice actor. She adopted different voices for each family member. How she kept them straight is beyond me. I will buy this book to have as a future reference, but I feel I got more from this Audible version than I could from the written one, due to the excellence of the narrator.

Saga of a Poor Urban Family

Ugh. You don't wanna be poor. Elliot tracks a homeless family of 8 struggling to survive in New York City. The author follows the family for nearly a decade giving the reader a detailed account of daily life in trying to raise a family if you're homeless in urban America. I lwas given an insider's view of the welfare system or "safety net." I saw the influences of addiction but moreso the influence of a culture that leads to addiction and incarceration and perpetuates the poverty cycle. I was introduced to many of the players that make up the assistance culture which included teachers, lawyers, psychologists and government functionaries, some good and some not so good, some fantastically influential and some fully incompetent.

The book was very long and very detailed but not boring and well written and extremely educational. You'll never look at a homeless person in the same way and your understanding of "the system" will improve. I think it's a vital read for anyone wishing to help anyone.

Worth the Pulitzer I believe it won

(Though Audible seems to bury the fact of excellence awards….) Extended 8 year report on a girl, her homeless NYC family of parents and siblings and the city systems that try to and often fail to serve them. It goes beyond what one might think is the Golden Ticket Out and a happy ending to a different and pretty happy ending or pause years later. It’s a long realistic road with a number of likabley people.

A must read (listen)

Eye opener of a book. My heart ached for Dasani and her family as their parents do the best they can given the circumstances they were born into.

Review of an amazing family

I liked that it was not rushed, it was thorough, it built many scenes which added a sense of dignity.

Love

I love this book will most definitely recommend this is a some reality 4 u

Everyone should listen to this book

This book opened my eyes in ways I didn’t realize they needed to be. I’m grateful I found it.

An Important Book

This was a gut wrenching story but one of many hundreds of thousands that needed to be told. The narration was spot on. The listener does not need to hear a tougher sounding Brooklyn/NY accent to feel and imagine the utter despair and hopelessness of parents who cannot provide for their children, or of children being scattered far and wide from the only parents they've ever known. The narrator's sardonic manner throughout the book is a perfect representation of a broken system that continues to be broken year after year, decade after decade as history continues to repeat itself. All of which, by the way, is no accident!

Excellent Narration of an Unforgettable Story

I'm a different person after hearing Dasani and Chanel's story. This book should be required reading.

To those of you reading the other reviews that criticize the narration, I'd like to offer some perspective. I'm a linguist, and I used to work in the field of voiceover acting (finding voice actors to record voices in different accents and languages for different purposes). Any time an actor speaks in African American Vernacular English (AAVE), the reviews are worse. We can give listeners the benefit of the doubt and argue that their dislike is subconscious and that they aren't being overtly racist, but the consequence of these reviews is detrimental to the success of the product. My professional opinion is that Ojo's narration of this book is excellent. She maintains faithful voices for the different "characters" and effortlessly code switches between Standard American English for the author's words and AAVE for characters that speak it. She gradually and subtly made Dasani's voice "grow up" as Dasani got older. She distinguished between men and women without sounding affected. To those listeners criticizing the narration, what is the alternative? For the author herself to narrate Dasani's family's voices with a white New York accent? For a voice actor who speaks only Standard American English to fake AAVE, which would be incredibly offensive? The use of AAVE brings authenticity to this story and, of course, is just representing how the real people in this story talked in real life. Sociolinguistics is complicated, but if you are bothered by a story in which people speak AAVE, it is important to ask yourself why.

A must read

I really enjoyed this book so much! I love how much information it provides and every character felt so real. The narrator did such a great job!