Invisible Child

Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City

By: Andrea Elliott

Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo

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 reads like a page-turning 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 • Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize

Critic reviews

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

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

“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. This book is so many things: a staggering feat of reporting, an act of profound civic love, an extraordinarily moving tale about the fierceness of family love, and above all, a future American classic.”—Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies

“A wonderful and important book.”—Tracy Kidder, author of Strength in What Remains and Mountains Beyond Mountains

“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

“Elliott’s book is a triumph of in-depth reporting and storytelling. It is a visceral blow-by-blow depiction of what ‘structural racism’ has meant in the lives of generations of one family. But above all else it is a celebration of a little girl—an unforgettable heroine whose frustration, elation, exhaustion, and intelligence will haunt your heart.”—Ariel Levy, author of The Rules Do Not Apply

“With her Invisible Child, Andrea Elliott has achieved a towering feat of reporting that paints, layer by layer, an extraordinary portrait of a child, a family, a city, and the nation that produced them. From start to finish, she sustains an insatiably curious and deeply empathetic focus on worlds that so many people work hard, if mostly unconsciously, to never really see.”—Howard W. French, author of Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War

“Invisible Child is hands down the best book I have read in years. This is a profoundly moving investigation into what it means to truly love other human beings. . . . A masterpiece.”—Thomas Harding, bestselling author of Hanns and Rudolf and Blood on the Page

“Stunning . . . a remarkable achievement that speaks to the heart and conscience of a nation.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A heartbreaking story of a family . . . This important book packs a real gut punch.”—Booklist (starred review)

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!

Incredible

One of the most important pieces of literature I’ve heard on the child welfare system. For child advocates, this is a must read.

Why is this not required reading?

There is so much of this book that should be required reading for all students.