When Rose Nolan arrives on Ellis Island as a seventeen-year-old Irish immigrant, she is looking for a land of opportunities; what she finds is far from all she'd dreamed. Stubborn and tenacious, she refuses to give up. Left alone to fend for herself and her younger sister, Rose is thrust into a hard-knock life of tenements and factory work.

But even as she struggles, Rose finds small bright points in her new life--at the movies with her working friends and in the honest goals of her mentor, Gussie. Still, after her exhausting days as a working girl, Rose must face the confusion of balancing her need for simple fun with her more wary feelings about joining Gussie in her fight for better working conditions.

When the devastating Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 rushes into Rose's life, her confusions are brought to an all-too-painful head. To whom and to what can she turn when everything around her is in ashes?

Sharp, poignant, and stirringly real, MJ Auch has written a powerful historical novel that is hard to put down.

Travis Tacey doesn't have it easy: his mom's in the hospital suffering from brain trauma after a terrible car accident, and his father has lost his good sense in the aftermath and kicked him out. Homeless, penniless, and only fourteen years old, Travis tries to make money off of his singing and guitar playing skills. But when his beloved guitar--a family heirloom--is stolen, Travis grows desperate. By a stroke of luck, he gets a job helping a guitar maker. Through Travis's love of music, his devotion to his family, and the kindness of strangers, he begins to find his way in the world. But in Guitar Boy by MJ Auch, how will he keep his family together?

Twelve year-old Basil knows he's special--he's been associating numbers with colors since he was a kid. His gift (or curse) has turned him into somewhat of a loner, but his world begins to change when he meets Tenzie, the new girl in school who has similar freakisms. She, too, has synesthesia (a condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another). At first, Basil is somewhat annoyed with Tenzie's pushiness, but after Basil's estranged mother returns, his life is turned upside down . . . and Tenzie may be the only person to help him put it back together again.
Once again, MJ Auch has written a thoughtful coming-of-age novel that explores friendship, family, and fitting in, in One Plus One Equals Blue.

Dad had asked me to give him a hand, and that's exactly what I was doing. I was fast becoming part of the fourteen-cent chopped meat special--which, I'm told, was not a big seller for the rest of the day.

What would it be like to go through life with only one hand? That's exactly what eleven-year-old Norm finds out when he loses his left hand in an accident at his family's store. It's July 4, 1946. World War II has ended, and life is getting back to normal. But for Norm, the pressing question now is whether he will ever be able to play baseball again. And what about his dreams of becoming an artist? Norm can't even figure out how to tie his shoes anymore. How will he ever learn how to pitch or catch or swing a bat with no left hand? It's up to Norm to find the strength to get beyond this roadblock and move on with his life.

Twelve-year-old Grady Flood and his mom, Lila, have been on the road ever since Grady's dad died seven years ago. When their old car breaks down, they find themselves stranded in rural Pennsylvania where Lila gets work as a cook and caretaker. There's nothing out of the ordinary in that, unless you factor in her new boss. Old Charlie Fernwald, a skilled mechanic and bird enthusiast, is definitely out of the ordinary. In fact, if Grady's not mistaken, Charlie is a certifiable wing nut. For the time being, Grady figures, he can help Charlie with his birds and maybe even learn how to fix a car engine. But before he can do either, something goes terribly wrong.