Book teaches children realities of homelessness ~ ChristianWeek
Michelle Rickard
Special to ChristianWeek
Mississauga,
The Cardboard Shack Beneath the Bridge: Helping Children Understand Homelessness, written and illustrated by Tim Huff, lays the groundwork for parents and teachers to start talking with children about homelessness.
“The world won’t be shaped into something better because we’ve blocked or hidden children from difficult things. But it can be changed in miraculous ways if we hold them tight and walk through the harsh things of the world with them,” explains H
uff, a Toronto resident who has dedicated his life to young people living on the streets.
For nearly two decades, Huff has worked full time among poor and marginalized youth in the Greater Toronto Area with Youth Unlimited (Toronto Youth for Christ), where he founded Frontlines Youth Centre and pioneered Youth Unlimited’s Light Patrol street outreach. His work on the streets among homeless youth and adults has led him into alleyways, under bridges and off-ramps and into other dark corners of the city.
“Homelessness has been called one of the greatest tragedies of our time. In an age of prosperity and plenty, hundreds of thousands of people continue to find themselves homeless.”
Although he’s traveled extensively throughout North America and Europe researching, networking with and training others in creative and compassionate responses to domestic poverty and homelessness, it was the voices of his own children that inspired him to write his first book.
“My children started asking hard questions about those who are homeless and I wanted to provide them with answers that were age-appropriate, gentle and truthful. Not answering them wasn’t an answer. This was the beginning of the concept for the book.”
It took Huff nearly five years to complete the book that captures what he’s seen in his 20 years of working on the streets into a form children can easily understand.
After several rejections from publishers who told him “this is the kind of information people are trying to keep out of their households, not bring in,” the manuscript caught the attention of Castle Quay Books.
“And here we are. Kind of seems like a big fuss for a little book,” Huff said during a May press conference. “But the actual issue is anything but small. I believe it’s the substance of what can change the world on every level. To some extent, I’ve fooled many people as I’ve called it a ‘children’s book’ – as though it would be something that helps adults teach children. But what I know for sure is that this is a book that will allow children to teach and inspire adults.”
Former lieutenant-governor of Ontario Hilary M. Weston (who wrote the book’s foreword) spoke at the launch event, and Fred Penner, a well-known children’s entertainer, performed.
“This isn’t only a global issue. Poverty is in our own backyard and we have a responsibility to our home communities,” says Dave Toycen. “Tim’s book is powerful and will help our own children to better understand the issue.”