Book Circle: A Place Called Home
We are excited to collaborate with Elizabeth's Bookshop and Writing Centre to host this month's Book Circle. We'll be discussing A Place Called Home: A memoir by David Ambroz at Elizabeth's Bookshop inside Compass at The Well CDC. Support local and enjoy the cozy café!
The first 20 registrants will receive a FREE copy of the book and you will be entered to win a gift card to Compass (must be present on 5/23 to win). Books should be picked up before 5/16 at Elizabeth's Bookshop unless other arrangements are made with Sarah. An email will be sent when the books arrive for pickup.
Join us for a light dinner, coffee, and conversation with CASA volunteers, CASA staff, CASA board members, and community members. Since this book circle is open to the community, feel free to invite a friend to join you!
A Place Called Home: A Memoir
There are millions of homeless children in America today and in A Place Called Home, award-winning child welfare advocate David Ambroz writes about growing up homeless in New York for eleven years and his subsequent years in foster care, offering a window into what so many kids living in poverty experience every day.
When David and his siblings should be in elementary school, they are instead walking the streets seeking shelter while their mother is battling mental illness. They rest in train stations, 24-hour diners, anywhere that’s warm and dry; they bathe in public restrooms and steal food to quell their hunger. When David is placed in foster care, at first it feels like salvation but soon proves to be just as unsafe. He’s moved from home to home and, in all but one placement, he’s abused. His burgeoning homosexuality makes him an easy target for other’s cruelty.
David finds hope and opportunities in libraries, schools, and the occasional kind-hearted adult; he harnesses an inner grit to escape the all-too-familiar outcome for a kid like him. Through hard work and unwavering resolve, he is able to get a scholarship to Vassar College, his first significant step out of poverty. He later graduates from UCLA Law with a vision of using his degree to change the laws that affect children in poverty.
