Mary Childers's intimate and frank memoir tells the story of growing up in a family in which five out of seven children dropped out of high school and four different fathers dropped out of sight. With this lyrical and often humorous examination of how she became the first person in her family to attend college, Childers illuminates the causes of welfare dependence, generational poverty, and submission to a popular culture that values sexuality more than self-esteem and self-sufficiency.
"An eloquent reminder of the human possibility that public assistance can protect and preserve...[Mary] grasps the contradictions of her life and lives it, triumphantly and emphatically, like a chameleon. Ultimately, she ascends out of urban poverty via scholarship, hard work, imagination, and a strong sense of self."-Elle
"Childers' tale of growing up white, Irish-Catholic and on welfare in the Bronx rises above cliché and melodrama with humor and uncommon grace."-Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Whatever preconceptions we may have about 'welfare moms' and their families, some will be challenged and some confirmed by this feisty autobiography."-Boston Globe
Mary Childers is a consultant who mediates conflict and provides discrimination prevention training for higher education and corporations. She has a Ph.D. in English literature and lives in Hanover, New Hampshire.
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