"Memphis, Tennessee, 1936. The five Foss children find their lives changed forever when their parents leave them alone on the family shantyboat one stormy night. Rill Foss, just twelve years old, must protect her four younger siblings as they are wrenched from their home on the Mississippi and thrown into the care of the infamous Georgia Tann, director of the Tennessee Children's Home Society. South Carolina, Present Day. Avery Stafford has lived...

Covers why and how the effects of poverty have to be addressed in classroom teaching and school and district policy. Topics include what poverty does to children's brains and why students raised in poverty are especially subject to stressors that undermine school behavior and performance.