Annotation
"But what I have also learned is that no one, no one truly knows what is possible until they go and do it."
A young woman's journey to survive and take control of her life. Liz Murray grew up in a drug addict home, only to be found on the streets. At age fifteen, after the death of her mother, change was what was best for her. She returns to school and finds her way to an Ivy League school.
Justification for Nomination
Liz Murray starts Breaking Night with her staring at a picture of her mother and into the mirror as she compares her looks. She is only fifteen and staying at a friend's home for the night, for shelter.
The story continues with her beginning the story of her mother's journey onto the streets, doing drugs, meeting her father, taking care of Liz and her sister, Lisa, and scraping by each day. Most days they had little to eat, other days, they had nothing. Liz has a difficult time in school because of her dirty clothes and hygiene. She deals with students teasing her and bullies. Having missed so many days of school, she was taken from her family and put in to a girl's home. Soon, she found herself on the streets, managing to scrap by by foraging for food and riding the subway just to have somewhere warm to sleep.
After the death of her mother, Liz was tired of knocking door to door of her friends to have somewhere to sleep. She took it upon herself to leave her boyfriend. She started calling to school, hoping to get a chance at an interview. After getting rejection after rejection, she stuck between one more interview or giving up. She pulled herself together and managed to make it to the interview, and was eventually enrolled. She packed four years of high school into just two years and eventually she was off to Harvard.
Breaking Night was an interesting memoir. A journey from homeless to Harvard, by doing everything for herself and very little help, besides her teachers. I found it very inspiring how she continues to push herself until she was sure she was happy. She was determined and no matter how many times she wanted to give up, she found a reason not to.
Genre Alex Award | Adult | Memoir | Non Fiction
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