Product Description
"When you eat soup every night, thoughts of bread get you through." Ghostbread makes real for us the shifting homes and unending hunger that shape the life of a girl growing up in poverty during the 1970s.

One of seven children brought up by a single mother, Sonja Livingston was raised in areas of western New York that remain relatively hidden from the rest of America. From an old farming town to an Indian reservation to a dead-end urban neighborhood, Livingston and her siblings follow their nonconformist mother from one ramshackle house to another on the perpetual search for something better.

Along the way, the young Sonja observes the harsh realities her family encounters, as well as small moments of transcendent beauty that somehow keep them going. While struggling to make sense of her world, Livingston perceives the stresses and patterns that keep children--girls in particular--trapped in the cycle of poverty.

Larger cultural experiences such as her love for Wonder Woman and Nancy Drew and her experiences with the Girl Scouts and Roman Catholicism inform this lyrical memoir. Livingston firmly eschews sentimentality, offering instead a meditation on what it means to hunger and showing that poverty can strengthen the spirit just as surely as it can grind it down. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

This is a MUST READ!
Beautifully poetic... heartbreaking yet sweet. This is a must read for anyone that loves memoirs!

A remarkable work
This is an amazing book.With an understated punch, Sonja Livingston allows the reader to see poverty for what it is: not an abstraction, but something real, all consuming that reaches into every aspect of someone's life. There is not a single false note in this book and Ms. Livingston allow the reader to come to an understanding of both the strength, the beauty and yes, the randomness of her escape from all of that. The book's unusual structure, more a chronological series of essays than a conventional memoir, works well.This is a first book well worth reading.

Livingston Superb!
I'm not given to 5 star ratings easily. They have to be earned and this young author, Sonja Livingston, has a way of writing that simply blows me away. Her style is clear and crisp - straight to the point. Yes, Ghostbread is non-fiction, so you could say this is a memoir. But it's also short stories - a mechanism Livingston uses brilliantly to present her childhood. And let me say now this is not a whining, self-pitying attempt at catharsis. Livingston's use of language is powerful and direct. Speaking of her mother Sonja says, "Her tales were rich in gook and detail. Nothing was left out. Except for fathers. They were ghosts that folded themselves into the edges of her tales, vapors that floated in and out of delivery rooms, with us somehow, but never really showing themselves." I love how the descriptive writing style is neither flowery nor overblown.

Livingston assembled Ghostbread chronologically, which makes sense in that it's helpful for the reader to understand the family history. The author is the 5th child of 7 - most of whom were born of different fathers - and grinding poverty forced multiple moves upon the family. This almost constant moving meant the children never had a real idea of 'home' or stability. Periodically, Livingston would ask her mother why she wasn't like other mothers. "Why don't you have a husband? Why don't you make regular meals? Why don't you teach me to do up my hair?" To which mother, from flinty New Hampshire, would respond, "Live free or die - I'm telling you girl, there's no other way to be." And thus, with those words early in the book, you understand instinctively that these children are on their own.

Mostly, Ghostbread is a book of longing - for understanding; for an engaged mother; for some idea of what a father might be like; for basics like bread to stave of hunger, and a full refrigerator of food; for a sense of self. As a result, Livingston grew up not really knowing who she was, what she wanted, or where she was going. Perhaps through biological fate, her path diverged from that of her peers after high school. Though capable and intelligent, Livingston's main roadblock was not having anyone in front who could guide her to the next chapter of her life - college - and to a future beyond what she could envision.

It's always hardest being the first. It's lonely going down a different path, and yet somehow the author escapes her childhood - but not completely - and not that easily. "I managed to make my way... but remnants of the past remain. Like a ghost, the past is always there, flicking its gauzy fingers my way."

Livingston now works with children and sees herself in some of their narratives. She understands these children and their stories, but this clarity comes with a price. "I celebrate and cry for those who still live in poverty's clutches... I'd love to point them in new directions... ideals and opportunities and social theorizing are just fine, but if you must understand only one thing, it is this: a warm hand and words whispered into the ear are what we want. Paths that can be seen and followed and walked upon are what we most need. And in the end, the thing that feeds us, no matter how tenuous, is what we will reach for."

It's for writing such as this that you should rush out and get this book. Now. Really.

A fine read that many readers will be empowered by
Why do the poor stay poor? "Ghostbread" is a memoir through the avenue of creative nonfiction from Sonja Livingston, as she reflects on her life as the seventh and youngest child of a single mother. Following her mother and family through many homes and not so homes, she reflects on why she believes so many find the cycle of poverty so hard to break. Poignant and touching, as well as somewhat tragic, "Ghostbread" is a fine read that many readers will be empowered by.

Amazing book for educators
As an elementary school counselor, I found this book to be an eye opening memoire from Sonja Livingston. Sonja describes her life in poverty through the eyes of a child with great detail, emotion, and innocence. In reading this book, it allowed me, as well as many colleagues- teachers, admininistrators, and staff- to become more aware of the lives of so many children today who are faced with struggles at home including financial difficulties, alcohol and drug abuse, divorce, blended families, abuse, neglect, incarceration of a parent, and the list goes on. This book has given me an opportunity to discover what some children like Sonja are faced with on a daily basis and how resiliant they can be with caring people and love in their lives. Sonja was fortunate to have a mother who loved her children deeply and believed in education; doing the best she could as a single mother living in poverty.As a school counselor, I believe that many educators become that person in a child's life who cares, nurtures, and is the "rock" who helps to build confidence in a child when parents are drowning in their personal struggles. I recommend this book to anyone who works with children, has children, or educates children. This book is an excellent tool for college course work (Freshman reading, Women's Studies, Child Psychology, Diversity, Counseling, Social Work, etc.). This book is sure to touch your heart. ... Read more

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NYC Broadway Playbill period beginning 3-20-39 Morosco Theatre 111 performance ... Read more

Product Description
By chronicling the everyday experiences of women in a rural Head Start program, Lynda J. Ames and Jeanne Ellsworth examine the processes of underprivileged women working to make a better life for themselves and their families. The authors explain that in order to empower its participants, the Head Start program allows many women to work as aides or on advisory boards in order to learn how to impact the structures that constrain their lives. This enables participants to take more control while receiving financial assistance and other opportunities for new social support structures.Head Start was designed around the assumption that its aim should be to 'correct' certain presumed deficits of parents, and many policymakers and participants swear by the program for its capacity to empower and its remarkable success rate. Unfortunately, while empowerment can make women's lives more manageable and more rewarding, many administrators feel that it does not change the immediate structure of poverty.In the search for a program design that provides more accountability, administrators are moving to take more control of local programs, thereby decreasing the mothers' control and threatening the flexibility and the empowerment potential of the program, two key factors that have made Head Start so successful.It is this struggle for control of the women's day-to-day lives and families that Ames and Ellsworth reveal through personal stories. "Women Reformed, Women Empowered" is not only a testament to the successes of the program, but a story of poor women finding the resources they need, and a call to reevaluate disempowering policies that can drive underprivileged families deeper into apathy and hopelessness. Author note: Lynda J. Ames is Assistant Professor of Sociology at State University of New York, Plattsburgh. Jeanne Ellsworth is Assistant Professor, Center for Educational Studies and Services at State University of New York, Plattsburgh. ... Read more