Marisa Johnson

Dr. Wilson
ENG 2560
15 November 2017
Poverty in Childrens literature

Poverty is a topic that is discussed in childrens literature. This paper will

consider how poverty is portrayed to middle school aged children. This paper analyzes

poverty in children's literature as discussed in "Radical Children's Literature Now",

" Minds and Hearts: Using Jeanette Wallss Memoir, The Glass Castle, to Teach

Emotional Intelligence", and "Against All Odds Reading Rudolph Over Four Decades of

Childrens Literature". In addition to an article analysis, this paper will include

interviews with students in fifth grade at Barnard Elementary School and an analysis of

a short story that depicts a family in poverty.

Poverty is a topic that most media seems to shy away from, especially when in

media marketed to children. For a long time, books and other media have been

censored by adults to try to help children. Many books marketed for children, try to

portray poverty solely in a negative light without giving context on what poverty looks

like realistically. Radical Childrens Literature Now describes poverty being

represented in childrens literature as only recently taking a step towards realism. Nel

and Mickenberg state that childrens books addressing poverty fail to address the

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underlying causes of poverty and homelessness1 Meaning that books are addressing

the issue of poverty, but still only focus on the issue at its most basic level. These books

only address critiques of modern life such as overconsumption or address basic

solutions to poverty such as giving food to a food bank, without addressing the

underlying causes of poverty. Children will be unable to grow if they only were to hear

about issues at the surface level and unfortunately childrens literature still is skimming

the surface on the issue of poverty. The article Against All Odds also describes

childrens literature of having a disconnect between the realism of poverty and that of

characters in poverty in childrens literature. Liberti and Smith describe how books

about the story of Wilma Rudolph has not changed throughout several decades of being

reproduced in childrens literature. Liberti and Smith state that the stories written about

Rudolph focus on agency, as imagined in these books, always trumps constraint,2

explaining that books that are associated with poverty often follow a Cinderella Story

plotline in which a person in poverty overcomes the terrible consequences as an agent

without focusing on the structural, or societal, constraints placed on people in poverty.

Liberti and Smith, like Mickenberg and Nel, believe that childrens literature often only

looks at poverty at surface level. In contrast, Andrea Irvins article Minds and Hearts

1 Mickenberg, Julia L., and Philip Nel. Radical Childrens Literature Now! ChildrenLiterature Association
Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 4, 2011, pp. 461
2 Liberti, Rita, and Maureen M. Smith. Against All Odds: Reading Rudolph over Four

Decades of Childrens Literature. (Re)Presenting Wilma Rudolph, Syracuse

University Press, Syracuse, New York, 2015, pp. 157.

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explains how she uses The Glass Castle, a memoir by Jeanette Wall, to teach emotional

intelligence. Irvin states that having her students read this memoir about someone who

was born into poverty is productive not only in teaching but also by building students

ability to relate to a character in poverty and understand people dealing with the same

circumstances themselves. Irvin believes that in contrast to the other articles, poverty is

being displayed in a positive manner in childrens literature. In Minds and Hearts

Irvin explains that the book represent poverty in childrens literature well because

even students who do not have a personal connection to Walls's experience have their

eyes opened to the circumstances of others, including someone who may be sitting

beside them in class.3. Irvin addresses how the memoir The Glass Castle covers Walls

complete life story and shows her life in poverty and then to success. In the quote above

Irvin explains that this deeper understanding of poverty helps students relate and

understand poverty but also to help students who are not familiar with the

circumstances of poverty learn and gain empathy for the character and other students

going through the same thing as Mickenberg and Nel said that childrens literature

should do in respects to topics dealing with social inequalities such as poverty.

3 Irvin, Andrea, and Lisa Storm Fink R.W.T. "Minds and Hearts: Using Jeannette Walls's
Memoir, the Glass Castle, to Teach Emotional Intelligence." English Journal 102.1
(2012): 60. ProQuest. Web. 15 Nov. 2017.

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 Although the authors of the articles disagree if childrens literature is portraying

poverty correctly now, an agreement between the authors can be seen when looking at

how they believe poverty should be portrayed in childrens literature. Each author

believes that a censorship of poverty is not productive in childrens literature. Radical

Childrens Literature Now describes that poverty in childrens literature should be

used to push readers to identify with the poor, or to recognize their own privilege4,

meaning that childrens books need to start using books as a tool to teach children

empathy, not only for characters in poverty, but also being able to empathize with

people in the real world who are dealing with poverty themselves. Nel and Mickenberg

do not believe it is enough just to have a book address an issue, but that book should

also address the roots and flawed assumptions of the issues, in this case, poverty. Irvin

also agrees with Nel and Mickenberg and Liberti and Smith. Irvin explains that The

Glass Castle adresses the root cause of Walls being impoverished as a kid was due to

her fathers drinking problem. The overall composition of the memoir as a childrens

literature book does not only focus on surface level poverty but instead uses someone

elses memories to have an in-depth look as to poverty is like. Irvin also explains that

Wall and how she saw her father as a demon, but Wall also explains good memories

of her childhood and her father. This touches on a complicated issue of children who

4 Mickenberg, Julia L., and Philip Nel. Radical Childrens Literature Now! Childrens
Literature Association Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 4, 2011, pp. 462.

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experience poverty being that they place blame onto their parents for their situation, but

since they know that they are half their parent that it is difficult to place all the blame on

their parent since they are essentially then seeing themselves as part of the issue.

Children often have a hard time coming to terms with their parents indiscretions which

leads them into a circular path of thinking and in cases such as poverty they often go

through times of defending their parents and blaming them. Against All Odds

explains that poverty should be shown as a more societal construct and not a simple

Cinderella Story plotline in childrens literature. Liberti and Smith address how many

of the books that talk about Wilma Rudolph often degrade certain aspects of poverty by

saying that the familys appearance is glamourized or that they refused to accept

welfare. Liberti and Smith explain that by degrading aspects of poverty feeds into

negative stereotypes of people in poverty and instead these books should not only focus

on the individual, but society and help to portray aspects of poverty in a positive light

instead of trying to degrade certain aspects of poverty such as welfare to make a

character or characters lives more glamourized.

To determine if childrens literature is displaying poverty in a realistic and

effective manner I did a literature analysis of the short story The Beans and Rice

Chronicles of Isaiah Dunn from Flying lessons. This literature review looks at a story

that addresses poverty to analyze if the story is being used as a tool to portray poverty

in a realistic manner to children. I also went to Barnard Elementary school and could

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directly interact with students to discuss the novel Wonder and the movie Beauty and the

Beast. From this first-hand experience, I could ask children directly if they believed that

poverty was being addressed realistically and in an effective manner.

When analyzing The Rice and Bean Chronicles of Isaiah Dunn the story is a

piece of childrens literature that addresses poverty in a realistic and effective manner.

The story begins by developing the backstory of why Isaiah and his family are in

poverty: his father died and his mother became an alcoholic. Isaiahs mothers

alcoholism and the fact that she is not working causes Isiah and his family to become

homeless and forces them to move into a run-down motel. This follows along with Nel

and Mickenbergs claims that childrens literature that addresses topics such as poverty

should include the root cause of why the character is in poverty. Isaiah also often

comes to class smelling like cigarettes because the smoke from someone elses room

seeps into Isaiahs families room. Since Isaiah smells of cigarettes, a girl in his class

makes fun of him and makes him ashamed of the fact that he smells. During an internal

dialogue, Isaiah mentions how it is not his fault that he smells. This addresses two

interesting mindsets of children in poverty. The first point the author makes is that

Isaiah does not feel ashamed that he is homeless but rather feels ashamed that he

smells. As Irvin mentioned it is difficult for children to place blame on their parents, so

in a way, Isaiah is avoiding placing his blame on his mother for his homelessness

causing him to smell and instead placing blame onto the person who smokes in a room

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near his that causes him to smell. This shows children that although someone is in

poverty they may not blame all their problems on the fact that they are in poverty and

instead recognize their circumstance, but place blame on a factor that does not have to

do with the fact that they are homeless. The author also addresses that children in

poverty might feel a sense of protection for their parents. Instead of telling his classmate

that the reason he smells like cigarettes is that he is living in a motel Isaiah throws a

drawing she makes of him holding a cigarette at her head. This shows that Isaiah

recognizes that by telling his classmate about his situation he might be endangering his

family and although he does not like the way his mother behaves and blames her for

their circumstance, he still does not want to be taken away from his mother, which

could happen if his teacher were to hear of his circumstance. This story also helps

children to gain empathy for those in poverty because it shows how Isaiah cannot help

his circumstances and he must take care of his sister and mother at a young age, this

also helps children to recognize their own privilege. Overall this story is shown

realistically because it shows how poverty is caused and shows its effects, but does not

simply portray poverty as a Cinderella Story plotline or only show poverty in a

negative light by only showing the negative aspects of poverty, such as Isaiah lashing

out in class or him smelling like cigarettes. This story shows negative aspects as of

poverty, but also shows that Isaiah is still able to be a child and join a story writing

competition with one of his fathers stories and that he still has friends.

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 When asking fifth graders if they believed that poverty was being portrayed in a

realistic and effective manner I got a lot of mixed responses. The students had just read

Wonder and watched Beauty and the Beast. I was assigned to work with students to help

define and connect Agatha, the enchantress who chooses to live in poverty to make

others aware of poverty and teach people to be empathetic of those in poverty in Beauty

and the Beast to a character in Wonder. In the movie, Agatha goes to the castle to see if the

Prince will accept a rose from her as a homeless woman. Instead of being empathetic for

Agatha he turns her away and she curses him as the Beast if he does not learn to find

love before the final petal of the rose falls. In this way, Agatha is trying to teach the

Prince that since he cannot accept others differences he needs to learn how to live in a

way that causes him to learn what it is like to be the one who is unwanted and different.

While helping the students with their project I had time to ask them a question

pertaining to how poverty was portrayed in the movie. When I asked the students

about if they thought that Agatha portrayed people in poverty in real life they did not

seem to understand what I meant. I asked the second time if they thought that it was

fair that Agatha turned the Prince into a Beast. To my surprise, many of the students

thought that it was not fair of Agatha to punish the prince for being rude to her when

they thought she was homeless. This meaning that the children were unable to

recognize that Agatha was trying to make the Prince aware that just because she was

homeless it did not mean that she did not deserve as much respect as himself. One of

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the students said, It is not bad that the beast did not like her. I found that this was

interesting because children seem to reward entitlement. This quote also leads me to

believe that many mainstream childrens media is still failing to portray poverty in a

realistic and effective manner because the children were not able to understand from

the movie that the Prince was not being empathetic to someone who was in poverty and

therefore they had not learned that it is important to be nice to everyone disregarding

their social standing. While interviewing the students I also asked that in general if

books helped them understand people in poverty. This question got mixed responses

some students said that it helped them understand people in poverty thus having them

be empathetic and recognize their privilege, but some students said that it did not help

them at all or that knowing someone in real life going through situations like being in

poverty would help them to understand issues, including poverty better. I expected

most of the children to say that books still are not representing poverty realistically or in

an effective manner so I was not surprised by their answers. I did think, however, that

they would be able to see that the Prince was in the wrong for his actions towards

Agatha, but as I mentioned before they seemed to side with the Prince and so no

wrongdoing on his part. The most interesting thing I learned by interviewing the

students was that even when characters such as Agatha are portrayed in media children

still seem to be unable or unwilling to recognize their own privilege and understand the

character even when it is laid out for them.

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 My interview with the students also seemed to be non-productive. Many of the

students either did not understand some of the questions I was asking or did not want

to answer them and would give short one worded answers and go back to the activity

for the day. This may have been because the students were not interested in talking

about the topic of poverty or did not see it as helpful to the classwork, it may have been

also since everyone in the class was very excited to work with college students for a

day. Many of the students had high energy levels and seemed more focused on asking

me questions about college than the assignment, let alone the extra questions I was

trying to ask them. I got the best responses from students when I could ask questions

that seemed to go along with the assignment at hand because they came off more

natural than trying to work in a question when it did not have to do with what we were

doing in that point of the assignment.

Overall, I believe that among children in the middle school age range childrens

literature is failing to portray poverty in a realistic and effective manner. There are

stories like The Rice and Bean Chronicles of Isaiah Dunn, but they are still failing to

be represented in the classroom. Since stories that are effectively portraying poverty

realistically are not being implemented in the curriculum many children are still not

reading them and are instead still seeing poverty being represented at a basic level that

is unrealistic and does not teach students how to grow as human beings. The next step

for books representing poverty in a realistic and effective manner would be to get them

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into classrooms for children to read and replacing old books taught in the curriculum

that do not help students to grow. A point of further growth on this research would be

to find teachers who utilize books that represent poverty in a realistic and effective

manner in their classrooms and compare students empathy and understanding of

people in poverty to students in classrooms that do not have a curriculum with books

that represent poverty in a realistic and effective manner.

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 Works Cited

Baptist, Kelly J. The Rice and Bean Chronicles of Isiah Dunn. Flying Lessons & Other

Stories, Edited by Ellen Oh, Crown Books for Young Readers, 2017, pp. 87-104.

Irvin, Andrea, and Lisa Storm Fink R.W.T. "Minds and Hearts: Using Jeannette Walls's

Memoir, the Glass Castle, to Teach Emotional Intelligence." English Journal 102.1

(2012): 57-60. ProQuest. Web. 15 Nov. 2017.

Liberti, Rita, and Maureen M. Smith. Against All Odds: Reading Rudolph over Four

Decades of Childrens Literature. (Re)Presenting Wilma Rudolph, Syracuse

University Press, Syracuse, New York, 2015, pp. 155184. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1j1nw6x.11.

Mickenberg, Julia L., and Philip Nel. Radical Childrens Literature Now! Childrens

Literature Association Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 4, 2011, pp. 445-473

see. Rogets 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition. Philip Lief Group 2009. 15 Nov.

2017. <Thesaurus.com http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/see>.

Trousdale, Gary, Kirk Wise, Don Hahn, Linda Woolverton, Paige O'Hara, Robby

Benson, Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David O. Stiers, Angela Lansbury, and

Alan Menken. Beauty and the Beast. Burbank, CA: Walt Disney Studios Home

Entertainment, 2010.

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