The following version of this book was used to create this guide: Elliott, Andrea. Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City. Random House, 2021.

Eleven-year-old Dasani Joanie-Lashawn Coates is a primary caregiver for her seven siblings. She is always warming a bottle or soothing a cranky baby. Dasani's family of ten lives in one room of the Auburn Family Residence, a homeless shelter in Brooklyn. This shelter is plagued with all sorts of vermin--Dasani has taught herself to ignore the roaches and mice. The bathrooms have black mold, and the children think they are scary, thus the bucket of urine that collects in the crowded room overnight. Besides her caregiving duties, Dasani is nervous about starting the 6th grade. Her homeroom teacher, Miss Hester, and the McKinney principal, Miss Holmes, help to put Dasani at ease at the same time they hold her up to a high standard. They chastise her when she victimizes others because her own life is so difficult.

One day, Chanel receives a phone call that changes the life of all the family members. Dasani has gotten into the Milton Hershey School, a private school in Hershey, Pennsylvania that serves only low-income students. Applying to Hershey had been Principal Holmes's idea, and the family knew how difficult it was to be chosen to receive free tuition, books, clothes, and living expenses. Dasani's sister Avianna had applied to Hershey as well, but she never was accepted. The whole family is deeply proud of Dasani but sad and even a bit worried too. Dasani performs so many functions within the family that the family unit feels shattered and vulnerable. Dasani herself carries the heavy burden of guilt to Hershey, and this guilt makes her time at Hershey that much more difficult.

Life at Hershey is highly regimented so that students can always know where they need to be next. This regimentation is soothing for many students, including Dasani. The fact that all of the students' material needs are met at Hershey also provides relief from the chronic stress of child poverty that the students experienced at home. At Hershey, Dasani didn't have to worry about how Chanel would hustle for their next meal or another pair of shoes for growing feet. At Hershey, Dasani never had to miss class to take care of a sick baby. She manages to take some honors classes, and she loves her legal class.

Yet Dasani continues to struggle with anger issues even with the help of Julie, her therapist at Hershey. Dasani knows that the situation at home in Brooklyn is far from ideal, and in fact both her mother Chanel and her step-father Supreme are struggling with drug abuse. They rotate in and out of rehabilitation programs, and Chanel begins to keep irregular hours. The spotty parenting causes the Administration for Children's Services to become involved with the family. ACS places the family under surveillance for many years to come, and both Chanel and Supreme lose custody of the children at various times. Back at Hershey, Dasani is struggling. She has an outburst on one of the school buses and unfortunately, her next transgression is a vicious fight with an eighth grade girl. Dasani is sent home for good.

Foster care is another nightmare because the children cannot all be kept together, the one solution that would bring them more peace. Most of the foster homes are decent, but some houses are headed by abusive fathers and sons, and nowhere seems altogether safe. Supreme's son Khaliq, a gentle child who cleans compulsively when he is nervous, has become involved with a local gang. He was offered $50 to assault an elderly woman on the street, and much to his own surprise, he carries through with the crime. He now becomes involved in a variety of criminal activity and is incarcerated. Supreme mourns the fact that he has lost his way.

As the book closes, Chanel has just regained custody of Dasani, Avianna, and Papa, Chanel's youngest son. The partial family walks to the park to participate in a gender reveal party for an pregnant extended family member named Kalinda. The day is fair and beautiful, and the family regains hope in the midst of an announcement of a new baby boy.