Nobody Don't Love Nobody

Book excerpt: The children whose stories are told in Nobody Don't Love Nobody share one thing in common: they all live with their families in a homeless shelter's family dormitory, where they can stay for up to three months. And most of them attend classes at the School With No Name, a public school classroom at the shelter, where Stacey Bess is their teacher. Their stories do much to humanize the face of homelessness today and emphasize that the homeless are not simply a population of aimless or alcoholic, single men. But mostly these stories show how love and respect can change and empower a life. When the children are befriended by their teacher, their peers, an NBA all-star, and other members of the community who take the time to reach out, the children respond in kind with remarkable offerings of their own.