Celebrating the Power of the Written Word to Create Change
On May 6, 2023, Goddard Riverside invited the community to join us for an in-person discussion about Sanctuary: Kip Tiernan and Rosie’s Place, the Nation’s First Shelter for Women with the author by Christine McDonnell, winner of our 2022 Goddard Riverside CBC Youth Book Prize for Social Justice. The event took place at our Children’s Book Giveaway at our Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center.
On September 18, 2023, Goddard Riverside invited the community to join us for an in-person discussion about Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City with the author Andrea Elliott, winner of our 2022 Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice. The discussion was moderated by Lydia Polgreen, journalist and option columnist for The New York Times. We partner with Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service and the event took place at their university.
The Book Prizes celebrates the power of the written word to create change in the name of justice for all people—a value shared by the publishing community and Goddard Riverside. Learn more.
About the Books
Sanctuary: Kip Tiernan and Rosie’s Place, the Nation’s First Shelter for Women by Christine McDonnell and Illustrator by Victoria Tentler-Krylov
Winner of the 2022 Goddard Riverside CBC Youth Book Prize for Social Justice
Before Kip Tiernan came along, the US had no shelters for women. Here is the inspirational story of a singular woman and what her vision and compassion have brought to life.
“Justice is not three hots and a cot. Justice is having your own key.”–Kip Tiernan
When Kip Tiernan was growing up during the Great Depression, she’d help her granny feed the men who came to their door asking for help. As Kip grew older, and as she continued to serve food to hungry people, she noticed something peculiar: huddled at the back of serving lines were women dressed as men. At the time, it was believed that there were no women experiencing homelessness. And yet Kip would see women sleeping on park benches and searching for food in trash cans. Kip decided to open the first shelter for women–a shelter with no questions asked, no required chores, just good meals, and warm beds. With persistence, Kip took on the city of Boston in her quest to open Rosie’s Place, our nation’s first shelter for women.
Purchase a copy of Sanctuary: Kip Tiernan and Rosie’s Place, the Nation’s First Shelter for Women
Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City
Winner of the 2022 Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice
By turns heartbreaking and revelatory, provocative and inspiring, Invisible Child —Pulitzer Prize winner—tells an astonishing story about the power of resilience, the importance of family, and the cost of inequality.
In Invisible Child, Pulitzer Prize winner Andrea Elliott follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani, a girl whose imagination is as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn shelter. In this sweeping narrative, Elliott weaves the story of Dasani’s childhood with the history of her ancestors, tracing their passage from slavery to the Great Migration north. As Dasani comes of age, New York City’s homeless crisis has exploded, deepening the chasm between rich and poor. She must guide her siblings through a world riddled by hunger, violence, racism, drug addiction, and the threat of foster care. Out on the street, Dasani becomes a fierce fighter “to protect those who I love.” When she finally escapes city life to enroll in a boarding school, she faces an impossible question: What if leaving poverty means abandoning your family, and yourself?
A work of luminous and riveting prose, Elliott’s Invisible Child reads like a page-turning novel. It is an astonishing story about the power of resilience, the importance of family, and the cost of inequality—told through the crucible of one remarkable girl.
Purchase a copy of Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City.