Synopses & Reviews
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Zucchino spent a year sharing the lives of Odessa Williams and Cheri Honkala -- two "welfare mothers" in Philadelphia -- to gain an intimate look at their day-to-day existence. Odessa, supporting an extended family, exhibits almost superhuman strength and resolve. Cheri, a single mother, is a tireless advocate for the homeless. Zucchino beautifully portrays them as figures of profound courage and quiet perseverance, systematically shattering all misconceptions and stereotypes about these women and so many others like them.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 351-354) and index.
About the Author
David Zucchino is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for his reporting from South Africa, and a project editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer. He lives in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, with his wife and three daughters.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Trash Picking
2. Quaker Lace
3. Check Day
4. An Historic Square Mile
5. Scratching Matches
6. Don't Stand Here
7. Fried Perch on White Bread
8. In the House of the Lord
9. Riding with the Devil
10. A Teenaged Prostitute
11. A Necessary Butt Whipping
12. Skinny Joey
13. A Home for the Holidays
14. Money Williams
15. Epilogue: Survivors
Sources
Index