Here are a few startling statistics from this excellent overview of the staggering dimensions of world poverty, written by Dale Hanson Bourke, the author of eight books and a dedicated humanitarian:

• Nearly half of the people in the world live on less than $2 a day.
• The combined economies of all 48 sub-Saharan African countries are about the same as the city of Chicago.
• The GDP of the poorest 48 nations is less than the combined wealth of the world's richest three people.
• 20 percent of the population in the developed world consume 86 percent of the world's goods.
• 6 million children under five die every year of malnutrition.
• There are 9.2 million refugees in the world.
• Worldwide, 1.4 billion people lack access to clean water.

Begin reading this paperback by taking a quiz on how much you know about global poverty. Then consider such tough questions as:

• Won't there always be poor people?
• Does foreign aid really help?
• Is globalization good or bad?
• What is debt relief?
• Why are there so many wars and conflicts in poor countries?
• What is the Global Fund?

This excellent book amplifies its subject with quotations, facts, photos, charts, and illustrations.