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JUDY WOODRUFF: For the last 
decade, Pulitzer Prize-winning 
journalist Andrea Elliott has been

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following Dasani, a child who 
grew up in homeless shelters and 
foster care in Brooklyn, New York.

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And Andrea Elliott's new book, 
"Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival 
& Hope in an American City,"

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expands on her 2013 New 
York Times profile of Dasani

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and asks readers to question their views 
about poverty and opportunity in America.

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Tonight, she offers us her Brief But 
Spectacular take on seeing the unseen.

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ANDREA ELLIOTT, Author, "Invisible 
Child": We tend to love this 
romantic story about poverty, which

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is that it's something you escape, 
that, if you work hard enough, 
that if you are talented enough,

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and maybe with a little bit 
of luck, you can make it.

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For every kid who makes it out, 
there are so many more who are 
just as capable, just as talented,

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just as willing, but who face 
barriers that are much greater 
than their own talent and

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willpower. And we don't ask ourselves why 
so many of those kids don't make it out.

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We just tend to celebrate the one 
who did, because it lets us off 
the hook, in a sense. And yet it

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is the path that I believe most 
represents what poor kids have 
to struggle with in this country.

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I will never forget the first 
moment I saw Dasani and her 
family. They were walking out

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of the shelter in a single file line with 
Chanel, her mother, at the front of the

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line. They just exuded this togetherness 
as a family, this strength, this unity.

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And over the next near-decade 
that I continued to follow her, I

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watched that family get broken 
apart. I watched her survive things

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I never imagined on that first day 
meeting her that I would witness.

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One of the first things she said 
to me was: "My name is Dasani, 
like the water." Her mother

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named her for the bottled water because 
she wanted Dasani to have a better life.

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And that bottle symbolized this 
other America, the people who 
could afford to pay for water.

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Her grandmother Joanie named 
Dasani's mother Chanel after 
the fancy perfume, which she

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spotted in a magazine, at a time 
when that was the closest you 
could get to this other life.

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To watch the Dasani grow up was 
heartbreaking and wildly inspiring. It is

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an incredibly high-wire act to survive 
deep poverty. It requires all kinds of

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small miracles of genius to just get 
through the day. It's really important

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to reach past the labels that 
are given to a kid like Dasani, 
homeless, foster kid, poor.

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Those labels are an invitation 
to delve deep into history. Her 
great-grandfather fought in World War

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II when the military was segregated, 
returned with three Bronze Service 
Stars into redlined Brooklyn,

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unable to get a mortgage, 
unable to work in his chosen 
profession, and wound up earning

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about $200,000 less than 
he should have earned

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over the course of his lifetime, 
unable to buy a home, which is 
so critical to family wealth.

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That road was cut off for Dasani's family. 
For many years, I would describe my work

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as an attempt to understand. It's

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almost a trope that journalists reach 
for. That's how we explain our work.

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The root of the word understand 
is understandan, which means 
to stand in the midst of.

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I think, if I did anything in this 
decade with Dasani, it was to stand

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in the midst of her life. And that 
was the greatest privilege of mine.

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My name is Andrea Elliott, and 
this is my Brief But Spectacular 
take on seeing the unseen.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Very powerful.

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And you can watch all our 
Brief But Spectacular episodes 
at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.