About the book:
Sandra goes to elementary school in one of the poorest parts of the city. Only one child in her fifth-grade class does not qualify for the free-lunch program. It’s the rare youngster who resides with both biological parents. Not many of their caregivers graduated high school. Several have problems with drugs and alcohol. Some are in jail.
Sandra lives in a $200-a-month rental apartment with holes in the walls and mice in the insulation. Her mother has emotional and health problems and does not work. There is no car. Sandra walks to the grocery store and the Laundromat. She wears ill-fitting clothes from Goodwill and the Salvation Army.
Sandra’s teacher asked me to speak to her charges about writing. At that time, I penned the metro column for The Evansville, Ind., Courier & Press.
I quickly became aware that many of the children in Sandra’s class have never been to the mall or the museum or to a baseball game. I started taking three or four kids at a time to these places. This was my first intimate experience with urban poverty. I had been like most others in Evansville who only knew the projects as fleeting images in the rear view mirror while speeding by on the expressway.
Sandra (not her real name) became a regular companion on these outings. Once I met a neighbor who was carrying a bag of groceries into the little girl’s apartment. She explained that the family often runs out of money and it’s common for folks living nearby to contribute items.
That became the impetus for a book on Sandra’s fifth-grade year, both at home and at school. I wanted readers to discover, as I did, what it’s like to grow up poor with all the odds stacked against her. To make matters worse, Sandra is extremely shy and anxiety-ridden. Her mother has convinced her that the world is a dangerous place. The child won’t go to the zoo because she believes the stories she’s been told about how the animals could get loose and kill everybody they see.
I have not seen Sandra since the end of her fifth-grade year. As I write this, she should be entering her freshman year of high school. She deserves the best. I wish her plenty of good days ahead.
—August 23, 2011