Showing titles in Homelessness, Runaways & Poverty

Prequel to The Gas Station Girl. My teacher wanted us to write about something that impacted our lives. Boy is she in for a surprise. Don't worry, I toned down the rough language to stay within my high school's writing guidelines. John Jensen’s aunt called me the gas station girl because that’s where John found me after my escape. But before I became the gas station girl, I was a DollarFly girl. All of us came from backgrounds we were running away from. But we weren’t a therapy group, we were teenage prostitutes, lured by the promise of a better life than the ones we left behind. Some...

Is Justine crazy? Everyone thinks so… Her mother. The kids at school, and the teachers and administrators too. Even the police who pick her up from her night rambles. Maybe them most of all. Justine’s therapist says she is ‘troubled’, but it means the same thing. He thinks that her vivid, reoccurring nightmares and atrocious behavior point to some trauma in her past; but Em, Justine’s mother, can’t explain it. Justine used to have Christian, her best friend and skateboard partner. He was the only one who accepted her.

After Philly teenager Alexis Duncan is injured in a gang shooting, her dreams of a college scholarship and pro basketball career vanish in an instant. To avoid becoming another Black teen trapped in her poverty-stricken neighborhood, she shifts her focus to the school's STEM team. Academics have never been her thing, but Alexis is motivated by Aamani Chakrabarti, the new Indian student who becomes her friend (and crush?). Alexis begins to see herself as so much more than an athlete. But as her future starts to reform, Alexis's own doubts and old loyalties pull her back into harm's way.

In the city of Lovecraft, the Proctors rule and a great Engine turns below the streets, grinding any resistance to their order to dust. The necrovirus is blamed for Lovecraft's epidemic of madness, for the strange and eldritch creatures that roam the streets after dark, and for everything that the city leaders deem Heretical—born of the belief in magic and witchcraft. And for Aoife Grayson, her time is growing shorter by the day.

My name is Sierra Reeves, and my life is built on lies. I’m not a regular girl. My telekinetic powers can flip the precarious balance between good and evil. On the run from those that seek to use me as a weapon, I seek protection from the magic-bearing marshal Gavin McLoughlin. If anyone can teach me how to stay alive, it’s Gavin, a well-connected supernatural who hums with authority. Too bad Gavin has no interest in training me. He doesn’t trust me and wants me to stay far away from him and his city. I can’t. I need him, and I’m driven to him like a moth to the flame.

What do you do with your last day on Earth? There are 27 hours and 15 minutes left until a meteor strikes North America, and for Emerson and everyone else who didn't leave, the world will end. But Emerson's world already ended when she ran away from home last year. Since then she has lived on the streets, relying on her wits and her friend, Vince, to help her find places to sleep and food to eat.

When 15-year-old Romeo's mother leaves one day and doesn't return, he finds himself homeless and trying to survive on the streets. Mute and terrified, his silence makes him vulnerable, and one night, he is beaten by a gang of other kids, only to be rescued by a boy who pledges to take care of him. Julian is barely two years older than Romeo. After running away from an increasingly violent home life, he makes some difficult choices and ends up selling himself on the street to survive. Taking care of Romeo changes him, gives him a purpose in life.

Paul Acampora makes his exciting debut in young-adult fiction with this poignant tale of a girl coping with the recent death of her father. When her mother moves the family to California, Dulcie decides to drive her father's pick-up truck back to Connecticut on her own.

It’s senior year, and Miranda Black’s best friend, Syd, has run away - suddenly and inexplicably. Everyone wants to know why Syd left, but the truth is, Miranda has no idea. When Miranda’s mother abandoned her as a child, Miranda had found shelter in her friendship with Syd, who wore her own motherlessness like a badge of honor. Now Miranda’s been left behind again, left to untangle the questions of why Syd left, where she is - and if she’s even a friend worth saving, all while stumbling into her first love with the most unlikely boy in school.

Written by New York Times best-selling author Christopher Golden, Runaways is a fresh take on the Marvel fan favorite. This audiobook includes a bonus PDF with the first issue of the revived Runaways comic series written by Rainbow Rowell, with art by Kris Anka. It's easy for fans of the comics, fans of the new Hulu TV show, and first-timers to all enjoy this new take on an old classic.

Hi, I’m Lyric. And I’m kind of a mess. ADHD, that’s me. I’m a high school drop-out, late everywhere I go, and one screw-up away from being homeless. I’m a loner, and I like it that way. After my mom died, I figured life couldn’t get much worse. I thought it might even get better. I should’ve listened to the rumors about evil spirits. About the angry, ancient magical creatures haunting our small Oregon Coast town. But did I? No. That was my first mistake. And it might be my last. ‘Cause now, I’m in a battle for my life.

In the seaside town of Nautilus, Minerva Gutiérrez absolutely hates her job at the local ice cream stand, where her sexist boss makes each day worse than the last. But she needs the money: kicked out of school and stranded by her mom's most recent hospitalization, she dreams of escaping her dead-end hometown. When an armed robbery at the ice cream stand stirs up rumors about money hidden on the property, Min teams up with her neighbor CeCe, also desperate for cash, to find it. The bonus? Getting revenge on her boss in the process.

When Michael saw a chance to leave town with a traveling carnival a year ago, he took it. Back then, his home life was spinning violently out of control. The carnival, with its "no questions asked" policy, seemed like a welcome escape. But now Michael's job has brought him back to Miami, where his mother is on trial for murder, making him wonder how much longer he can hide from his past... and his future.

Gem has never known what it is to have security. She's never known an adult she can truly rely on. But the one constant in her life has been Dixie. Gem grew up taking care of her sister when no one else could: not their mother, whose issues make it hard for her to keep food on the table, and definitely not their father, whose intermittent presence is the only thing worse than his frequent absence.

Vesper Montgomery can summon your worst fear and turn it into a reality - but she’s learned the hard way that it’s an addicting and dangerous power. One wrong move and you could hurt someone you love. But when she earns a spot in the Tournament of the Unraveling, where competitors battle it out for a chance to rewrite the past, Vesper finally has a shot to reverse the mistakes that have changed her forever.

Thirteen-year-old Hadi Toma and his family are displaced. At least that's what the Lebanese government calls them and the thousands of other Syrian refugees that have flooded into Beirut. But as Hadi tries to earn money to feed his family by selling gum on the street corner, he learns that many people who travel the city don't think they're displaced - they think that they don't belong in this country either. Each day he hears insults, but each day he convinces himself they don't matter, approaching the cars again and again. He hardly dares to dream anymore that this might change.

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.

Ancient magic lurks in the shadows. The Black Bloods’ home is more magnificent than Ena imagined, and more perilous than the life she fled. The time has come for the Black Bloods to unite against the Guilds, but loyalties born in blood will be tested by fire. And not everyone she loves will survive the flames. As murder and malice surround her, Ena must prove her innocence or risk a fate worse than death. Facing her enemies will test every friendship she has and risk the heart she has won.

First a Canadian Rockies avalanche kills their parents. Then Children’s Services threatens to separate them. That’s when the three Gunnarsson kids decide to run away into the mountains and fend for themselves until the oldest turns 18 and becomes their legal guardian. Not many would dare. But Jon, Korka, and Aron’s parents ran a survival school. Turns out their plan is full of holes.

Having a baby in a gas station attracted more attention than fifteen-year-old Kennedi wanted. Attention that led to placement with foster mom Amanda who acts overly controlling, and foster dad Henry who seems annoyed at her presence. When Henry suggests they look for her baby’s unknown father through a DNA heritage service to extract monetary restitution from him, Kennedi wonders if Henry is really trying to find relatives to send her to. The baby’s DNA results match with members of a paternal clan but lack matches to Kennedi’s own family lineage, leading to events that have her ...