SDG Book Club

GOAL 1 – NO POVERTY

Everyone deserves to live a life free from poverty and a chance to thrive. Millions of people around the world don’t have enough money to pay for food, a house, comfortable beds to sleep in, clean water, access to medical care or schools.

There are many reasons why people are poor including unemployment, natural disasters, social and economic changes, and lack of access to basic services. Sustainable Development Goal 1, No Poverty aims to help people who are suffering and lack the means to prosper.

We encourage you to read these books and hope they will inspire you to take action and help us to make this world a better place for everyone.

The SDG Book Club makes content available in the six official languages of the United Nations – please see our other pages for more recommendations in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish.

Special message from UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed

Reading list

Serafina’s Promise

This tale of one girl’s aspirations to be a doctor is a sad and unflinching depiction of poverty in Haiti but also an uplifting story about the power of love. Serafina both gives to and receives from her parents an understanding and fervent love. It’s this nucleus of her family which supports her through all hardships. This is a thoroughly engrossing piece of imagined reality, guaranteed to whet the appetite for more such literature. It is also saturated with warmth in its tales of friendship, experiences that buoy the narrator even as she watches a baby brother fade into nothingness, blighting her faith in humanity.

Author: Ann E. Burg | Illustrator: Sean Qualls | ISBN: 978-0545535670 | Publisher: Scholastic Press

Last Stop on Market Street

A beautifully illustrated book that looks at material poverty through the eyes of a young boy who rides on a bus with his grandmother across town. As CJ points out the things that other people have that he doesn’t, his grandmother responds with a positive and hopeful answer to show the beauty of life’s simpler things, the wonderful people who they know and meet on their ride through the city, and how rich their lives already are.

Author: Matt de la Pena | Illustrator: Christian Robinson |ISBN: 978-0399257742 | Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Reader

A Chair For My Mother

This book describes the dedication in restoring and rebuilding your life after a devastating fire. The fear and uncertainty are real for so many people around the world living in poverty. This book gives hope and is the perfect example of giving to those in need. The little girl focuses on the important things in life and the importance of giving and doing something for others. This story also shows how three strong women overcome hardship and restore their lives.

Author: Vera B Williams | Illustrator: Vera B Williams | ISBN:978-0688040741 | Publisher: Greenwillow Books

The Happy Prince

High above a city stands a gilded statue of the Happy Prince and a swallow who both witness the suffering, injustice and poverty of the people below. At the behest of the Happy Prince, the swallow begins to strip the statue of its jewels and gold leaf to give to the city’s poor. A poignant story by Oscar Wilde about compassion, charity, and selflessness.

Author: Oscar Wilde | Illustrator: Maisie Paradise Shearring | ISBN: 978-0500651117 | Publisher: Thames & Hudson