4 Picture Books About People Experiencing Homelessness

⚓ Books    📅 2025-11-06    👤 surdeus    👁️ 5      

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Homelessness in the United States increased by 18% from 2023 to 2024, and 12.1 million children experienced housing instability in 2022. Sadly, these numbers will likely continue to rise as cost of living skyrockets, wages stagnate, and support systems go unfunded.

Children will meet unhoused neighbors in their community, if they haven’t already. These four picture books, which depict people experiencing homelessness, humanize the crisis, and provide a much-needed window into their lives.

Cover of A Place for Us by Ransome

A Place for Us by James Ransome

This wordless picture book opens with a mother walking to school to pick up her child at the end of the day. The two eat dinner at a cafeteria, then walk to the library, where they remain until it closes. Afterward, the mom finds an empty bench at a park, and her lap becomes the child’s pillow for the night. In the morning, the child brushes his teeth at a water fountain and returns to school. Ransome’s book is a powerful story and the warm illustrations show the loving, nurturing bond between mother and son, as well as the community areas that become their home in lieu of a real one. In his author’s note, Ransome says he hopes this picture book sparks readers to ask: “In a country of vast resources, what is our responsibility to those without access to the basic necessities?” After reading this, my daughter had an easy answer: we give them a home.

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