Stranger Danger - Paperback

by Charity Chandler-Cole (Author)

Stranger Danger takes you on a riveting ride of the Los Angeles juvenile justice and foster care systems through the eyes and experiences of sixteen-year-old, Charity. Charity is a bright and studious girl who wants nothing more than to escape into the fantasy world of her favorite novels. However, she finds herself entangled in a reality that punishes poverty and exploits innocence.

After escaping the dangerous life of gangs and drugs that proved not as friendly and familial as she had hoped, Charity resorts to stealing food and clothing to address the deep poverty that she and her family were experiencing. After being caught stealing a pack of underwear, Charity finds herself handcuffed, sentenced, and spending the remaining years of her childhood in and out of juvenile hall and foster care. While in foster care, Charity is exploited by the very people in charge of protecting her and who she trusted was providing her a way out of poverty.

In this sweeping narrative, Charity weaves her horrific story of experiencing systems benevolently disguised as protection with the harsh realities at the intersection of poverty, systemic injustice, exploitation, and judicial punishment.