Showing titles in Homelessness, Runaways & Poverty

At fifteen, Iris is a hobo of sorts - no home, no family, no plan. Her mother died when she was six, and her selfish father hires her out as a companion to a country doctor's elderly mother. Iris, stuck in the middle of 1920s rural Missouri, discovers that "hobo" is short for "homeward bound," and cultivates an eccentric cast of folks into family, creating the home she never had. But when she learns that a neighboring tenant farmer may have had more than his hands on his pregnant daughter, Iris must intervene to save the girl and her unborn baby.

What if the last hope to save your family is the person who broke it up to begin with? Michelle and her little siblings Cass and Denny are African-American and living on the poverty line in urban Baltimore, struggling to keep it together with their mom in jail and only Michelle’s part-time job at the Taco Bell to sustain them. Leah and her stepbrother Tim are White and middle class from suburban Maryland, with few worries beyond winning lacrosse games and getting college applications in on time.

When the paths of a runaway teenage boy, an old hobo and a rich girl intersect in an abandoned train yard, each carries their own personal baggage. Over early mornings, long walks and cheap coffee they discover, no matter how big or small, it's the simple gifts in life that really make a difference.

Baby is a teenager in trouble, and her last chance is a foster home with a husband and wife whose idea of fun is dogsledding. Still, it beats going to the juvenile detention center. Baby comes to love the dogs and takes naturally to sledding, but when her old boyfriend, Bobby, shows up, she can't stop herself from running off with him. Life with Bobby goes bad, and Baby has to make some hard decisions.

Joseph’s sophomore year is about to begin, but his new start is a false one. At his father’s request, Joseph has moved in with his aunt and uncle to avoid the toxic environment surrounding his drug-addicted mother. But efforts to keep Joseph safe have tragic results for the family. When their community is shattered, Joseph must contend with his own grief, his mother’s persistent pleas for money, and the distance between himself and his father, stationed in Iraq - not to mention schoolwork, making the tennis team, and a new relationship.

Nikki Black finds herself homeless and wandering the streets of Los Angeles, when she begins to uncover a sinister cover-up that endangers herself and others.

The Russell family came home one evening to find an uninvited visitor sleeping on their porch. Brock appeared to be quite harmless. So they took him in. Knowing the Bible says they are to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, the Russells take Brock into their own home and quickly befriend him - only to find out he has formerly been accused of a horrifying act.

Poppy used to be an optimist. But after a photo of her dressed as Rosie the Riveter is mocked online, she's having trouble seeing the good in the world. As a result, Poppy trades her beloved vintage clothes for a feathered chicken costume and accepts a job as an anonymous sign waver outside a restaurant. As the summer unfolds, Poppy stops glorifying the past and starts focusing on the present. But just as she comes to terms with the fact that there is good and bad in everyone, she is tested by a deep betrayal.

Pan Smraďoch patří do kategorie hodně divných románových hrdinů. Žije na lavičce v parku a svému jménu dělá opravdu čest. Je to ten nejsmradlavější smraďoch pod sluncem. Dvanáctileté Chloe to ale rozhodně nebrání v tom, aby se s ním spřátelila. Jasně, páchne, ale na druhou stranu nikdy na ni nikdo nebyl tak milý jako on. A tak se Chloe rozhodne, že milého bezdomovce tajně ubytuje v kůlně na zahradě svých rodičů. Jenže schovejte takového smraďocha!

Flo lives an eccentric life - she travels with a popular circus in which the main acts star orphaned children with secret shape-shifting abilities. Once Flo turns 16, she must perform, but she's not ready. While practicing jumping a flaming hurdle in a clearing beside the circus, she spots a dark figure in the trees and fears he saw her shift. The news sends the circus into a panic.

Running away from home hasn’t solved Iphigenia Murphy’s problems. In fact, it’s only a matter of time before they’ll catch up with her. Iffy is desperate to find her long-lost mother, and, so far, in spite of the need to forage for food and shelter and fend off an unending number of creeps, living in Queens’ Forest Park has felt safer than living at home. But as the summer days get shorter, it all threatens to fall apart.

Dinah's whole world is upside down, dead things and angry men and cuts all over her head that are beginning to sting.... Seventeen-year-old Dinah needs to leave her home, the weird commune where she grew up. She needs a whole new identity, starting with how she looks, starting with shaving off her hair, her 'crowning glory'. She has to do it quickly, because she has to go now.

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 they meet Trini, the smart, beautiful, and confident girl from their local barber shop, and they both fall for her immediately. As tension creeps into their relationship, Ray must struggle to find an identity separate from Jose and try to envision a future for himself beyond Jose and Ten Mile River.

Rosario Gomez gave up gang life after his brother was killed in a street fight. Now all he wants to do is finish night school, be a good father and work hard enough at his job at the supermarket to get promoted. But when an old friend shows up to ask him why he left the gang, Rosario realizes he was fooling himself if he thought his violent past would just go away. When his pregnant girlfriend is hit in a drive-by shooting, Rosario has to make some hard choices. Revenge means a return to his old ways. But unless he takes action, his enemies won't rest until they've settled the score.

Number 33 Georgiana Street houses many people and yet seems home to none. To runaway Sam it is a place to disappear. To Bohemia, it's just another blip between crises, as her mum ricochets off the latest boyfriend. Old Isobel acts like she owns the place, even though it actually belongs to Steve in the basement, who is always looking to squeeze in yet another tenant. Life there is a kind of ordered chaos.

Cordelia Lu Hankins is the half Caucasian, half Chinese - and all albino. She has grown up in a remote lumber town with her distant father and a giant stepmother nicknamed Babe (after Paul Bunyan's blue ox), convinced she is ugly. Then, in the summer of 1918, when she is fourteen, she falls in love with the dashing Squirl. One day they meet on the mountain and Cordy receives her first kiss, as well as a wild ride down a log flume that gets Squirl fired.

När Samir och hans familj får veta att de inte får stanna i Sverige och kommer att tvingas återvända till Afghanistan fattar han ett drastiskt beslut. De kan inte skicka tillbaka honom om de inte vet var han finns ... Mitt i natten rymmer han och gömmer sig ute i skogen, men livet på flykt är tufft och han kommer att behöva vänner om han ska klara sig.

School is out for the summer, but not for 18-year-old Michael and 17-year-old Shelly. The pair of them meet while serving court-ordered community service, and both are driven by secrets and lies.

Barb may have zero friends IRL, but online, she is popular. Like, several-hundred-thousand-followers popular. Or at least, her hair is popular. Because Barb's hair is glossy and beautiful. Which is why hairbrush manufacturers pay her stupid money for a 30-second clip. But most of the time Barb just wants to be a normal teenager, who has friends and a life. One who isn't confined to her bedroom on the 12th floor of the tower-block flat she shares with her aunt making content. But it's soon clear something isn't right.

From a complicated Haitian life to heart surgery, to homelessness, Cynthia Josaphat’s struggles to survive her new life in the United States seem endless. After she’s taken from the only home she’s ever known by a domineering yet distant father, Cynthia’s life takes a sudden turn toward despair. Away from her mother for the first time, the Haitian teenager resolves to make the best of a difficult transition to America. Life in Haiti wasn’t perfect, but it was the only life she knew. Now, suddenly uprooted, Cynthia’s troubles have only just begun.