JULIENNE, THE ELDEST of three children, was fourteen years old when her family became homeless. With her brother Leon, age nine, Julienne shared the care of their three-year-old brother, Bo. The family's problems began after Bo was born and their father, Donovan, got abusive. Rosy, the children's mother, put up with Donovan's beatings because she knew she couldn't support her family alone. But the night he smashed Julienne in the face and broke her nose, Rosy left with the kids.

For several weeks the family stayed in an emergency shelter run by the city. Every night Rosy gathered the children around on her cot in the big hall where they slept with a hundred other people and read to them from the Bible. Julienne wasn't sure if her mother could really read or if she just...