Childhood Unmasked: The Agency of Brazil's Street and Working Children argues that Western European social constructions that define childhood as a time of innocence and vulnerability are often not relevant to the lives of economically poor children.

Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork with street and working children in Brazil, Childhood Unmasked speaks to the adverse effects these imported notions of childhood have on them. It links the notions of innocence to Brazil's complex racial history and social class divisions, and considers them as a cause of the violence against street and working children.

Through interviews with children and the non-governmental organizations that work with them, the book illustrates the lives of street children, contrasts them to the social stereotypes about them, and links them to the expectations of idealized childhood. These lives are explored through examinations of self-esteem, violence, hunger, living conditions, and health and illness.

Childhood Unmasked advocates for children as viable social actors who can speak the truth about their own identities and life experiences.