YA author Rex Ogle on Life as a Poor Kid in a Land of Plenty

Send us Fan MailRex Ogle’s series of YA memoirs, beginning with Free Lunch, about life as a poor kid in a wealthy school district, and culminating this year in Road Home, which chronicles his experience as a homeless teen have won acclaim for their frank ability to illuminate the shame and isolation that comes with poverty. In the words of Ogle’s mother, "being poor in America is like staring at an all-you-can-eat buffet. You can see all of this food piled high but you can’t have any of it.” Ogle’s mother turns out to be a hugely complicated figure who towers over Free Lunch, the polar opposite of Maia Kobabe’s mother in the graphic novel, Gender Queer, one of two books that Ogle has chosen to talk about for this episode. The other is Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming, a memoir of growing up as an African American in the 1960s and 70s.