In 1599 England, twelve-year-old lying, thieving Will Sparrow runs away, meets many colorful characters on the road, and then reluctantly joins a traveling “oddities” exhibit, where he learns to see beyond appearances.
Will Sparrow’s Road
Runaways
Blink & Caution
Two teenagers who are living on the streets and barely getting by become involved in a complicated criminal plot, and make an unexpected connection with each other.
A Good Long Way
“Stop it. The two of you, stop it!” Roelito howls at his father and older brother as their heated argument turns into a shoving match. Beto has again come home way past curfew, smelling like a cantina.When Beto Sr. tells his son that he either needs to follow the rules or leave, the boyza senior in high schoolzdecides to leave, right then, in the middle of the night. Once he has walked away, though, he realizes he has nowhere to go. Maybe his best friend Jessy can help.The story of Betozs decision to run away and drop out of school is told from shifting perspectives in which the conflicted lives of Roel, Beto, and Jessy are revealed in short scenes that reflect teen-age life along the Texas-Mexico border. Each one has a good long way to go in growing up. Roel fights the teachersz assumptions that hezs like Beto. Unlike his brother, Roel actually enjoys school. Jessy is smart too, but most of her teachers canzt see beyond her tough-girl façade. Her parents are so busy fighting with each other that they donzt notice her, even if shezs packing a suitcase to leave. And Beto z somewhere along the way he quit caring about school. And his teachers have noticed and given up too.René Saldana, Jr. once again writes a fast-paced, thought-provoking novel that will engage young adults in questions about their own lives and responsibilities to family, friends, and most of all, to themselves.
We Were Here
After “it” happens, Miguel is sent to juvenile hall for a year. The judge had no idea he was doing Miguel a favor. Ever since “it” happened, his mother can’t even look at him. “Any” home besides his would be a better place to live.
Homestretch
A runaway boy with nothing finds everything he needs, including a family, in the most unlikely of places–at a racetrack.
From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs.Basil E. Frank Weiler
When Claudia decided to run away, she planned very carefully. She would be gone just long enough to teach her parents a lesson in Claudia appreciation. And she would live in comfort-at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She invited her brother Jamie to go, too, mostly because he was a miser and would have money The two took up residence in the museum right on schedule. But once the fun of settling in was over, Claudia had two unexpected problems: She felt just the same, and she wanted to feel different; and she found a statue at the museum so beautiful she could not go home until she had discovered its maker, a question that baffled even the experts. The former owner of the statue was Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and without her help Claudia might never have found a way to go home.
The Higher Power of Lucky
Lucky, age ten, can’t wait another day. The meanness gland in her heart and the crevices full of questions in her brain make running away from Hard Pan, California (population 43), the rock-bottom only choice she has.
It’s all Brigitte’s fault — for wanting to go back to France. Guardians are supposed to stay put and look after girls in their care! Instead Lucky is sure that she’ll be abandoned to some orphanage in Los Angeles where her beloved dog, HMS Beagle, won’t be allowed. She’ll have to lose her friends Miles, who lives on cookies, and Lincoln, future U.S. president (maybe) and member of the International Guild of Knot Tyers. Just as bad, she’ll have to give up eavesdropping on twelve-step anonymous programs where the interesting talk is all about Higher Powers. Lucky needs her own — and quick.
But she hadn’t planned on a dust storm.
Or needing to lug the world’s heaviest survival-kit backpack into the desert.
Bud, Not Buddy
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father–the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.
Benito’s Bizcochitos: Los Bizconchitos De Benito
This bilingual fairy tale for children ages 4 to 8 relates the story of Benito, who runs away from home only to learn that the rest of the world isn’t nearly as friendly as his family’s farm.
Escape from Shangri-La
When the strange man who has been watching their house turns out to be the grandfather she has never seen, eleven-year-old Cessie couldn’t be happier — at first sight. But then he has a stroke and actually has to come live with them. Popsicle, as she calls him, is impossible to live with: moody, forgetful, clumsy. Only Cessie loves him and believes in him. So when he is sent off to a home for the elderly, she helps him escape. And plays first mate to him on a dramatic nighttime boat trip across the English channel to unravel a secret only the two of them know. This Morpurgo story makes the reader want to cheer — young people, the elderly, and courage at any age.