Alonso, a dirt-poor teenager living in Peru, helps out at the public health clinic his mother, Magdalena, opened, so that he can see Rosa, the beautiful and wealthy daughter of the clinic's doctor. Alonso and Rosa are both shattered when Magdalena is assassinated by ...

Tamika Sykes, AKA Mik, is hearing impaired and way too smart for her West Bronx high school. She copes by reading lips and selling homework answers, and looks forward to the time each day when she can be alone in her room drawing. She's a tough girl who mostly keeps...

Hannah West is not your ordinary twelve-year-old. She's artistic, full of street smarts, and best of all, she's a budding detective. She and her mom are technically homeless, but thanks to a series of house-sitting jobs, they always have a place to stay. In this firs...

Best friends Ray and Jose are not your typical teenagers. They've escaped foster care and juvenile detention centers to live on their own together in an abandoned stationhouse in New York City's Ten Mile River Park. Ray and Jose are as close as brothers. But then th...

Amber Appleton lives in a bus. Ever since her mom's boyfriend kicked them out, Amber, her mom, and her totally loyal dog, Bobby Big Boy (aka Thrice B) have been camped out in the back of Hello Yellow (the school bus her mom drives). Still, Amber, the self-proclaimed ...

Ivy is used to being overlooked. The youngest in a family of thieves, scoundrels, and roustabouts, the girl with the flame-colored hair and odd-colored eyes is declared useless by her father from the day she is born. But that's only if you look at her but don't see. ...

Harper Lee Morgan is an aspiring poet, which isn’t surprising, seeing as how she’s named after her mama’s favorite writer, Harper Lee. And life is giving her a lot to write about just now. Daddy up and walked out, leaving them broke. Then Harper&...

Eleven-year-old Ian and his father, a Vietnam veteran, have been homeless for several years. Now his father has found the perfect place for them, the vast, old, now unused city courthouse. As a historic monument, it is kept heated and has lots of bathrooms and a vari...

In an unnamed Third World country, in the not-so-distant future, three “dumpsite boys” make a living picking through the mountains of garbage on the outskirts of a large city. One unlucky-lucky day, Raphael finds something very special and very mysterio...

Joseph’s sophomore year is about to begin, but his new start is a false one. At his father’s request Joseph moved in with Aunt Shirley, Uncle Todd and cousin Jasmine over the summer, to distance himself from his mother’s drug problems and the danger...

Ellie and her mother lost everything in the hurricane: their home, their family business, and, tragically, Ellie’s dad. They get a chance at a new life when Ellie's mom gets a job apprenticing as a farrier and managing a horse farm in Virginia. Ellie ha...

For eleven-year-old Gopal and his family, life in their rural Indian village is over: We stay, we starve , his baba has warned. With the darkness of night as cover, they flee to the big city of Mumbai in hopes of finding work and a brighter future. Gopal is eager t...

Although Ruby seemed to just appear out of thin air on the steps of the courthouse on the first day of summer in 1944, no one in Way Down Deep, West Virginia, ever worried too much about where the toddler came from. They figured that if Ruby’s people were du...

Half of me was thinking , Georgina, don’t do this. Stealing a dog is just plain wrong. The other half of me was thinking , Georgina, you’re in a bad fix and you got to do whatever it takes to get yourself out of it.   Georgina Hayes is desperate...

Deet's world turns upside down when his father is arrested for drug use. It doesn't seem possible that kind, caring Dad could be a criminal! After all, he only took the pills to stay awake so he could work two jobs. Now what will happen? How will Deet be able to face...

Matthew knows that this summer is going to be the worst ever. His best friend Kyle is gone, his younger brother Mark has surpassed him in size and athletic ability, and his mother is pregnant for the fifth time.The eldest home-schooled son of a preacher, Matthew plan...

For Joseph Flood, life is tough. Tough because of Mama's addiction to drugs and alcohol. Tough because Daddy is away with the army fighting in Iraq. Tough because it looks like there's no way out once you're living in a homeless shelter in a North Carolina ghetto nei...

Rex didn't mean to end up in Critters animal shelter, but at least the homesick golden retriever is making new friends, including Catherine, a greyhound with a gambling problem; Placido, a one-eyed Siamese cat with an attitude; and M...

Leaving Home...forever. Like many girls her age in India, thirteen-year-old Koly is getting married. When she discovers that the husband her parents have chosen for her is sickly boy with wicked parents, Koly wishes she could flee. According to tradition, though,...

Delsie knew it wasn't a good idea to dare her best friend Todd to explore the abandoned houses by the old mill. But she couldn't back down after the words slipped out of her mouth. Together the two friends bike to the mill and try the door of each abandoned house. Th...