Readers will be captivated by this beautifully written novel about young people who must use their instincts and grit to survive. Padma shares with us an unflinching peek into the reality millions of homeless children live every day but also infuses her story with hope and bravery that will inspire readers and stay with them long after turning the final page.--Aisha Saeed, author of the New York Times Bestselling Amal Unbound

Four determined homeless children make a life for themselves in Padma Venkatraman's stirring middle-grade debut.

Life is harsh in Chennai's teeming streets, so when runaway sisters Viji and Rukku arrive, their prospects look grim. Very quickly, eleven-year-old Viji discovers how vulnerable they are in this uncaring, dangerous world. Fortunately, the girls find shelter--and friendship--on an abandoned bridge. With two homeless boys, Muthi and Arul, the group forms a family of sorts. And while making a living scavenging the city's trash heaps is the pits, the kids find plenty to laugh about and take pride in too. After all, they are now the bosses of themselves and no longer dependent on untrustworthy adults. But when illness strikes, Viji must decide whether to risk seeking help from strangers or to keep holding on to their fragile, hard-fought freedom.

Two twins, separated since birth by a terrible prophecy . . . until now!

Since birth, Silke and her twin brother Janis have been separated. For a terrible prophecy, made to their parents by the mysterious Madame Petrova, predicted that the twins would one day be the cause of each other's demise. So, Janis was sent away to be brought up among the mountains, while Silke remained in the family home . . . until now.

Silke and Janis's parents have died, and their devious cousins have brought them back together to carry out the prophecy so they can inherit the family home. But the twins are determined not to let that happen -- and so they decide to run away. Faking their own death, they flee into the forest wilderness, meeting poachers, a harsh winter, a dancing bear, a mysterious medium, and . . . Madame Petrova. Can the two siblings stick together and unravel the prophecy before it manifests?

Set in a charming blend of fairy-tale setting and historical Europe, The Curse of Madame Petrova bewitches and builds to a crescendo that feels genuinely unexpected and movingly shocking.

This Newbery Honor book by award-winning, bestselling author Nancy Farmer is being reissued in paperback

Eleven-year-old Nhamo lives in a traditional village in Mozambique, where she doesn't quite fit in. When her family tries to force her into marrying a cruel man, she runs away to Zimbabwe, hoping to find the father she's never met. But what should have been a short boat trip across the border turns into a dangerous year-long adventure, and Nhamo must summon her innermost courage to ensure her survival.

Once there was a runaway ... The third book in the Crow Stories trilogy is a haunting tale of a young boy's resilience and hope.

When a young boy loses his mother to cholera, he is convinced he must leave home. He is fearless, resourceful and, above all, determined to find what he is looking for. When his hunger gets the best of him, he agrees to join two riders who take him to their encampment. The boy is soon put to work for his soup and bread, and time passes, though he holds fast to his purpose. Then just when he is ready to set out again, he finds there is no need ...

Nancy Vo's finale to the Crow Stories trilogy is a moving tribute to a young boy's resilience and faith in the people he loves -- even in the face of their absence -- and his discovery that while times may be hard, they can also get much better.

Key Text Features

dialogue

illustrations

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.7

Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.7

Explain how specific aspects of a text's illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting)

As featured on The Today Show's Read with Jenna Jr. Book Club

Revisiting once again the world of Raymie Nightingale, two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo turns her focus to the tough-talking, inescapably tenderhearted Beverly.

Beverly put her foot down on the gas. They went faster still.
This was what Beverly wanted -- what she always wanted. To get away. To get away as fast as she could. To stay away.

Beverly Tapinski has run away from home plenty of times, but that was when she was just a kid. By now, she figures, it's not running away. It's leaving. Determined to make it on her own, Beverly finds a job and a place to live and tries to forget about her dog, Buddy, now buried underneath the orange trees back home; her friend Raymie, whom she left without a word; and her mom, Rhonda, who has never cared about anyone but herself. Beverly doesn't want to depend on anyone, and she definitely doesn't want anyone to depend on her. But despite her best efforts, she can't help forming connections with the people around her -- and gradually, she learns to see herself through their eyes. In a touching, funny, and fearless conclusion to her sequence of novels about the beloved Three Rancheros, #1 New York Times best-selling author Kate DiCamillo tells the story of a character who will break your heart and put it back together again.

Life on Earth isn't always fair, so Sophia runs off to the moon, where there are no bedtimes, no time-outs, and no Mom.
But as Sophia and her mom send letters to each other, Mom has a clever comeback for all of Sophia's angry notes. Home starts to sound not-quite-so-bad, especially when Mom reports that someone from the moon has moved in to Sophia's old room, they're having spaghetti for dinner, and they're reading Sophia's favorite story at bedtime.
A through line of unconditional love underscored with lots of humor and imagination makes this picture book a stellar pick for storytime.

Endless rides, endless junk food, and endless adventure? Who wouldn't want to live in an amusement park? Foreverland is sure to be a big hit with young readers.
--Suzanne Selfors, national bestselling author of Wish Upon a Sleepover and Fortune's Magic Farm

Nicole C. Kear's Foreverland is a bighearted coming-of-age story about being lost, and finding your way back home again.

Margaret is tired of everything always changing. Middle school has gone from bad to worse. Her best friend is becoming a stranger. And her family--well, it's not even a family anymore.

So Margaret is running away to Foreverland, her favorite amusement park. Hiding out there is trickier than she expects--until she meets Jaime, a thrill-seeking, fast-thinking runaway who teaches Margaret how to stay one step ahead of the captain of security.

At first, this after-hours, all-access pass to the park is a dream come true: sleepovers in the Haunted House, nonstop junk food, and an unlimited ticket to ride. But as the runaways learn each other's secrets, they must face the reasons they left their normal lives behind. With the Captain closing in and Jaime's future on the line, can Margaret finally take control?

Foreverland is an exhilarating story about riding life's rollercoaster--figuring out how to hang on and learning when to let go.

An Imprint Book

In this tale, a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster have all become too old to be useful on their farms. They decide to go on a journey to Bremen together where they will all become musicians. Along the way, they find a home that has been robbed! The animals use all of their power to sing and frighten the robbers away. After doing their good deeds, the animals make it to Bremen where they succeed in the dream of becoming famous musicians. While young readers will enjoy the amusing illustrations, they will also take away an important lesson: It's never too late to follow your dreams!

Disaster Calamity Catastrophe When Lola accidentally stains an armchair in her house, she decides that the best option is to run away to the library, where she hopes no one will find her. Along the way, she sees one catastrophe after another: a broken swing, a destroyed hose, a car crash . . . the city is full of chaos Will there by a resolution to all these disasters--or are they just accidents?

Kids become more resilient, competent and confident

when they develop a never give up attitude!

When it is nurtured, a never quit mindset serves as

a powerful tool in helping children better manage

everyday challenges and stressors.

The goal of this book is to help children appreciate

opportunities to learn and improve instead of quitting

while promoting inner strengths such as problem solving,

social skills, coping skills, mindfulness and emotion management.

I Never Give Up! uses engaging and relatable illustrations

alongside positive affirmations to build resilience and

perseverance in kids.

Let's raise superheroes who are ready to bounce back from

setbacks, learn from their mistakes, and above all, kids

who are determined, brave and self-confident.

Fostering resilience in kids significantly strengthens

their emotional and social well-being!

Last Sam's Cage is the remarkable story of fifteen-year-old Eddie Slater. Already labelled a young offender, Eddie runs away from an abusive stepfather and takes up residence at the Calgary Zoo. There he meets Jack, a middle-aged man who has been coming to the zoo's playground every day for thirty-two years to watch the children. Convinced that Jack is either a pervert or just plain weird, Eddie follows him home one day, and eventually breaks into his house to see what he can find. He discovers more than he bargained for - and that discovery changes both Eddie and Jack for good.

You have to take sides to survive--even if the choice tears you apart. From the Newbery Honor winning author of Hatchet,

His uncle wants him to stay home and work the farm, but the boy knows there's a world out there he has to see. Yet being a runaway means you're outside the law-- you're fair game. That's how he gets caught on the farm gang. There seems to be no way out, that is until Tiltawhirl John picks him up and teaches him how to be a carnie. How to stay one step ahead of the suckers. But there's one man from the past even T-John can't keep ahead of.

Jewel is on the run from an abusive home situation and furtively living at school. After Maya discovers her classmate's secret, should she tell? Or can she help Jewel on her own?

Thirteen-year-old Jewel has been holding her life together ever since her older sister, Charmaine, suddenly left home with no forwarding address. She tried to find Charmaine once, but that only brought her family to the attention of the police. Now Jewel keeps her head down at school, looks after her special-needs brother as well as she can, and tries to steer clear of her parents and their shady friends.

When her father's friend comes into her bedroom one night, Jewel finally understands why Charmaine had to leave home. Soon she is on the run herself. When her food runs out, Jewel chances upon a new place to live -- the cupboard of the art room at school. It turns out to be surprisingly easy to live under the radar when you have perfected the art of being almost invisible.

That is, until Jewel's classmates, Maya and Lily, discover her washing her hair in the girls' washroom at school and making breakfast in the lunchroom. They take her on as their project, finding her places to sleep, fixing her hair and wardrobe -- even as they can't quite understand her terror, or why she is so afraid of seeking adult help. But the girls help keep Jewel and her secret safe -- until they no longer can.

Told in the alternating voices of Maya and Jewel, this is a thought-provoking and moving story about loyalty, privilege, keeping secrets, and what it means to be a good friend.

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6
Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3
Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6
Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.

Imagine a modern-day retelling of Mark Twain's classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, with a teenage girl and a very pregnant young Mexican as the main characters. That's the gist of Matthew Olshan's brilliant literary debut, Finn: A Novel.The book's narrator is Chloe Wilder, a quiet girl, part tomboy, part survivor. Rescued from a murderous life with her mother, Chloe lives with her grandparents in the cocoon of a quiet, middle-class neighborhood. For the first time in her life, things are steady, safe--and stifling.Enter Silvia Morales, the grandparents' maid. Silvia is an illegal immigrant, but that's not her only secret: She's also pregnant, a transgression which gets her kicked out of the house. Not long after, Chloe is torn from her quiet life, too, and forced to live on the run.While Finn is about Chloe and Silvia's comic mishaps--and their brushes with real danger--on the road, it's also a dark portrait of modern America, where smug suburbanites live minutes away from the wilderness of inner cities, and once-mighty rivers meander under superhighways.Finn has been approved for ninth-grade English use statewide by the South Carolina Department of Education (2004). It's required for all high school college prep freshmen (2009).It was named one of LA's Best 100 Books for 2001 by the Los Angeles Unified School District.Finn was a finalist for the Michal L. Printz Award and the Booklist Editor's Choice Award, and it was considered for the PEN/Faulkner. It was nominated for YALSA Quick Picks (for reluctant teen readers) and for Best Book of 2001) by Bookreporter.com.It was selected Best Children's Book of 2001) by Plymouth Library, Plymouth, MI, and voted Book of the Month by Lake Mills, Wisconsin Library (2002).It was placed on the 2002 Summer Reading List for Lovett School in Atlanta, GA, and also on the Summer Reading List at Westside High School in Mason, GA.

When Hanley Helton discovers a boy living in her garage, she knows she should kick him out. But Nate is too charming to be dangerous. He just needs a place to get away, which Hanley understands. Her own escape methods-vodka, black hair dye, and pretending the past didn't happen-are more traditional, but who is she to judge?

Nate doesn't tell her why he's in her garage, and she doesn't tell him what she's running from. Soon, Hanley's trading her late-night escapades for all-night conversations and stolen kisses. But when Nate s recognized as the missing teen from the news, Hanley isn't sure which is worse: that she's harboring a fugitive, or that she's in love with one.

In a stunning story that makes history come alive (Booklist), a boy is sent to Mammoth cave to fight a case of consumption--and ends up fighting for the lives of a secret community of escaped slaves, who are hidden deep underground.

Twelve-year-old Elias has consumption, so he is sent to Kentucky's Mammoth Cave--the biggest cave in America--where the cool vapors are said to be healing. At first, living in a cave sounds like an adventure, but after a few days, Elias feels more sick of boredom than his illness. So he is thrilled when Stephen, one of the slaves who works in the cave, invites him to walk further through its depths.

But there are more than just tunnels and stalagmites waiting to be discovered; there are mysteries hiding around every turn. The truths they conceal are far more stunning than anything Elias could ever have imagined, and he finds himself caught in the middle of it all--while he's supposed to be resting. But how can he focus on saving his own life when so many others are in danger?

In this haunting and hopeful debut novel, a teen's court-mandated psychiatric residency prompts a change in perspective from which there is no looking back.

Taylor Truwell is a sixteen-year-old girl from Florida with a troubled past, a neglectful mother, a seemingly callous father, and an urge to flee. When Taylor is caught with a stolen car, her reaction lands her in court for resisting arrest. Her father convinces the judge of an alternative to punishment: treatment in a juvenile psychiatric correctional facility. And so Taylor arrives at Sunny Meadows.

Sunny Meadows is anything but the easy way out, and Taylor has to fight hard just to hold on to her sanity as she battles her parents, an intrusive therapist, and a group of particularly nasty fellow patients. But even as Taylor clings to her stubborn former self, she gradually relents to new friendships--and to unexpected romance. Sunny Meadows goes against everything Taylor stands for. But could it be the place that saves her?

In this striking debut, Laura Lascarso weaves together a powerful story of anger and self-destruction, hope and love, and the complicated way that it all comes together.

Running Away tells the story of a young boy growing up in the foster care system. In spite of his challenges, he keeps his sense of humor, hope, and favorite memories.