The Lady in the Box
By: Ann McGovern

• When Lizzie and Ben discover a homeless lady living in their neighborhood, they must reconcile their desire to help her with their mother’s admonition not to talk to strangers. This is a great story that teaches us about being kind to others and being thankful for what you have.

Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen
By: Dyanne Disalvo-Ryan

• When his nephew has a day off from school, Uncle Willie invites him to spend the day helping him at the soup kitchen. Although hesitant at first, the young boy discovers, that in Uncle Willie’s eyes, that the food collected from his neighborhood is not just food, but preparation for a feast. To Uncle Willie, the soup kitchen visitors aren’t strangers. They are his guests. This book is great for encouraging children to look for ways to show others how valuable they really are.

Those Shoes
By: Maribeth Boelts

• This is a book about sharing that reaches out especially to boys! Everyone at school has a certain pair of shoes (Chuck Taylor style hi-cut sneakers) and Jeremy wants them too. But, he just can’t afford them. His sneakers fall apart and he has to go to the guidance counselor’s office to pick new ones from a bin - embarrassing and disappointing. He finds a pair of the coveted shoes at a thrift store and buys them although they are really too small for him and they blister his feet. This clever book contains a powerful lesson about differentiating between wants and needs in the face of tight budget constraints.

A Shelter in Our Car
By: Monica Gunning

• This story of a girl and her mother who are living in their car as the mother tries to find work and save enough money to rent an apartment. This book does not pull any punches, but it is very tender and focused on the primacy of love between a parent and a child. This book is a great family read as parents try to develop compassion in their children.

Tight Times
By: Barbara Shook Hazen

• The story is about a small family doing their best to cope despite their financial troubles. The parents are worried and feel bad for their son. Seeing their child do without is so much harder on them than their own deprivation. It was gratifying that the little boy found a way to get a pet after all. They find that love; love for each other and love for their family is a wonderful thing, a thing that can take them through the worse of “tight times.”

Fly Away Home
By: Eve Bunting

• “Fly Away Home” is about a homeless child and his father who live in an airport, spending their days trying to blend in and stay under the radar of local security. The book really serves, however, as a way to teach our children about homelessness and how those people who suffer from it shouldn’t be shunned from society itself.

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