Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner by Barbara Kingsolver

The plot of Demon Copperhead, which takes place in the southern Appalachian highlands, centers on a little kid raised by a single mother in a single-wide trailer. The youngster's only possessions are the striking appearance and copper-colored hair of his deceased father, a sharp sense of humor, and an intense survival instinct. Demon braves the contemporary dangers of foster care, child labor, abandoned schools, athletic achievement, addiction, tragic loves, and heartbreaking losses, all while recounted in his own brutal voice. He struggles with his own invisibility throughout it all in a culture where even superheroes have turned their backs on rural residents in favor of urban areas.

Charles Dickens penned David Copperfield several centuries ago based on his personal experience of institutional poverty and the harm it did to children in his community.