Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott

Book Review

My first five star read of the year! This book is truly a must-read…

Included in both The New York Times top ten books of 2021 as well as Obama’s favorite books of 2021, Invisible Child offers a raw, heartbreaking and very real look at poverty, homelessness and racial injustice in New York City. Written by Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times journalist Andrea Elliott, the book follows the life of Dasani Coats and her family across eight tumultuous years.

The book begins when eleven-year-old Dasani and her seven siblings are living in one room in a Brooklyn homeless shelter. While Dasani, the strong-willed and fiercely protective oldest sibling, serves as the primary point of focus throughout the book, her mother, step-father and siblings are also closely followed as the family moves from shelter to shelter and endures countless hardships - including arrests, jail time, drug addiction, legal battles and intervention by child protective services.

In addition to recounting the Coates family’s experience navigating their way through the system in a city with over 60,000 homeless individuals, the author also dives into the politics surrounding New York City’s homelessness epidemic as well as the red tape gatekeeping access to the city’s social services.

One of the things I found most fascinating about the book - apart from learning a great deal about the realities of poverty - was seeing the close connection the author developed with her subjects. While she maintains largely objective throughout, Elliott acknowledges that it was at times difficult to remain an unbiased observer… especially given her extensive history with the family over nearly a decade.

This book should be required reading for all. Despite the fact that the book was written by a white author, this would make an excellent addition to your Black History Month TBR (along with other books written by Black authors) as it covers many topics tantamount to the racial justice movement.

I hope to read/hear more about Dasani and her family in the years to come, as her story is one I don’t think I’ll ever forget.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

TW: Drug abuse, addiction, neglect, racism, physical violence, sexual assault