Buddy

No Promises in the Wind

Irene Hunt · 223 pages

"No Promises in the Wind", by Irene Hunt, is about a 15-year-old boy and his little brother that run away from their home. It takes place in the Great Depression, 1932. After a long journey, the boys go back home and make things better.

In the Wild Light

Jeff ZENTNER · 432 pages

Where the Lilies Bloom

Vera Cleaver, Bill Cleaver · 175 pages

In the Great Smoky Mountains region, a fourteen-year-old girl struggles to keep her family together after their father dies.

Being Billy

Phil Earle

The Boy in the Black Suit

Jason Reynolds · 272 pages

Soon after his mother's death, Matt takes a job at a funeral home in his tough Brooklyn neighborhood and, while attending and assisting with funerals, begins to accept her death and his responsibilities as a man.

Honestly Ben

Bill Konigsberg · 339 pages

Ben Carver returns for the spring semester at the exclusive Natick School in Massachusetts determined to put his relationship with Rafe Goldberg behind him and concentrate on his grades and the award that will mean a full scholarship--but Rafe is still there, there is a girl named Hannah whom he meets in the library, and behind it all is his relationship with his distant, but demanding father.

Money Hungry

Sharon G. Flake · 188 pages

All thirteen-year-old Raspberry can think of is making money so that she and her mother never have to worry about living on the streets again.

Bronxwood

Coe Booth · 336 pages

Tyrell’s father is just out of jail, and Tyrell doesn’t know how to deal with that. It’s bad enough that his brother Troy is in foster care and his mother is no help whatsoever. Now there’s another thing up in his face, just when he’s trying to settle down. Tyrell’s father has plans of his own, and doesn’t seem to care whether or not Tyrell wants to go along with them. Tyrell can see the crash tha

Village By The Sea

Anita Desai · 260 pages

When their family falls on hard times, thirteen-year-old Lila and her twelve-year-old brother, Hari, try desperately to keep their home intact--an almost impossible task until Hari gets a chance to go to Bombay and returns with some positive plans for the future.

Small Steps

Louis Sachar · 272 pages

Two years after being released from Camp Green Lake, Armpit is home in Austin, Texas, trying to turn his life around. But it's hard when you have a record, and everyone expects the worst from you. The only person who believes in him is Ginny, his 10-year old disabled neighbor. Together, they are learning to take small steps. And he seems to be on the right path, until X-Ray, a buddy from Camp Gree

No Way Out

Peggy Kern · 140 pages

Bluford High freshman Harold Davis is trapped. Medical bills for his sick grandmother are piling up, and a social worker has threatened to put him in a foster home. Desperate for money, he reluctantly agrees to work for Londell James, a neighborhood drug dealer. The choice leads him into a world of dangerous streets where no one is safe. Will Harold escape the violence that surrounds him, or will

The Fire Eaters

David Almond · 228 pages

In 1962 England, despite observing his father's illness and the suffering of the fire-eating Mr. McNulty, as well as enduring abuse at school and the stress of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Bobby Burns and his family and friends still find reasons to rejoice in their lives and to have hope for the future.

I Am the Messenger

Markus Zusak · 386 pages

Gather

Kenneth M. Cadow · 325 pages

Publisher Annotation: A resourceful teenager in rural Vermont struggles to hold on to the family home while his mom recovers from addiction in this striking debut novel.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Mark Haddon · 240 pages

This is Christopher's murder mystery story. There are no lies in this story because Christopher can't tell lies. Christopher does not like strangers or the colours yellow or brown or being touched. On the other hand, he knows all the countries in the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7507. When Christohper decides to find out who killed the neighbour's dog, his mystery st

Lockdown

Walter Dean Myers · 247 pages

When I first got to Progress, it freaked me out to be locked in a room and unable to get out. But after a while, when you got to thinking about it, you knew nobody could get in, either.It seems as if the only progress that's going on at Progress juvenile facility is moving from juvy jail to real jail. Reese wants out early, but is he supposed to just sit back and let his friend Toon get jumped? Th

Rumble Fish

S.E. Hinton

Bucking the Sarge

Christopher Paul Curtis · 273 pages

Luther T. Farrell has got to get out of Flint, Michigan.As his best friend Sparky says, "Flint's nothing but the Titanic."And his mother, a.k.a. the Sarge, says, "Take my advice and stay off the sucker path."The Sarge milked the system to build an empire of slum housing and group homes. Luther's just one of the many people trapped in the Sarge's Evil Empire--but he's about to bust out.If Luther wi

Hope For Garbage

Alex Tully · 262 pages

"Welcome to the cruel world of Trevor McNulty. No matter how hard he tries, this seventeen year-old just can't get a break. And with all of the chaos swirling around in his head, girls are the last thing he cares about. But that changes when he meets Bea Stewart, a rebellious rich girl with problems of her own. As he tries to navigate through his first real relationship, Bea takes center stage, an

Max the Mighty

Rodman Philbrick, W.R. Philbrick · 166 pages

This is the second book about Maxwell Kane, who has a heart as large as his ginormous, still-growing body. Two years after the events of "Freak the Mighty," the book which chronicles the adventures of Maxwell Kane and Kevin Avery while they were "slaying dragons and fools and walking high above the world," Max has a chance to show he is mighty in his own right. When a young girl called "Worm" (b

Running Wide Open

Lisa Nowak · 323 pages

Cody Everett has a temper as hot as the flashpoint of racing fuel, and it's landed him at his uncle's trailer, a last-chance home before military school. But how can he take the guy seriously when he calls himself Race, eats Twinkies for breakfast, and pals around with rednecks who drive in circles every Saturday night? What Cody doesn't expect is for the arrangement to work. Or for Race to become

A Monster Calls

Patrick Ness · 224 pages

A brilliant, graphic novel written by young but promising Patrick Ness. This is the story about 13 year old Conor and his mother who is dying of cancer. Conor has to face the cruelty of real life and learn to let his close and dearest go. When no human can help him Monster appears...

Rikers High

Paul Volponi · 246 pages

Martin was sitting on the front stoop of his apartment building minding his own business when he was arrested for something he didn't even mean to do. Five months later, he's still locked up on Rikers Island, in a New York City jail. Just when it seems things couldn't get much worse, Martin is caught between two warring prisoners, and his face is slashed. Now he'll be forever marked with a prison

The Fallen

Paul Langan · 133 pages

This sequel to Brothers in Arms picks up the story of Martin Luna as he struggles to rebuild his life after the death of his little brother. In trouble at Bluford High School for fighting, Martin faces an even bigger problem at home: Frankie, the most feared homeboy from his neighborhood, is hunting him.