"Fourteen-year-old Robbie never knows from one day to the next if there is going to be enough to eat or if his father will even come home."--

Piper's life is turned upside down when her family moves into a shelter in a whole new city. She misses her house, her friends, and her privacy--and she hates being labeled the homeless girl at her new school. But while Hope House offers her new challenges, it also brings new friendships, like the girls in Firefly Girls Troop 423 and a sweet street dog named Baby. So when Baby's person goes missing, Piper knows she has to help. But helping means finding...

"Mr. Stink stank. He also stunk. And if it was correct English to say he stinked, then he stinked as well... Chloe sees Mr. Stink every day, but she's never spoken to him. Which isn't surprising, because he's a tramp, and he stinks. But there's more to Mr. Stink than meets the eye (or nose) and before she knows it, Chloe has an unusual new friend hiding in her garden shed. As Chloe struggles to keep Mr. Stink a secret, and her dad tries to hide a...

Growing up in the shadows cast by two world wars, Annabelle has lived a mostly quiet, steady life in her small Pennsylvania town. Until the day new student Betty Glengarry walks into her class. Betty quickly reveals herself to be cruel and manipulative, and while her bullying seems isolated at first, things quickly escalate, and reclusive World War I veteran Toby becomes a target of her attacks. While others have always seen Toby's strangeness, Annabelle...

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...

In Chennai, india, after spending his whole life in jail with his mother, who is serving time for a crime she did not commit, nine-year-old Kabir is suddenly released and has to figure out how to survive on his own in the outside world.

"After a family tragedy results in the loss of both father and home, Nora lives with her mother in Manila's North Cemetery, the largest shanty-town in the Philippines. When her mother disappears mysteriously one day, Nora is left alone. With help from her best friend, Jojo, and support from his kind-hearted grandmother, Nora embarks on a journey to find her mother. Along the way she also rediscovers the compassion of the human spirit, the strength...

Free is excited about a local poetry contest because of its cash prize, but when he and Dyamonde befriend a classmate who is homeless and living in a shelter, they rethink what it means to be rich or poor.

"Out in the neighborhood, Charlie finds things. He finds Margaret's ball, and he finds Aunt Myrtle's cat up in a tree. He finds Aunt Myrtle and his friend Steve looking at a big lemon pie. 'Whose pie is it?' Aunt Myrtle wants to know. Charlie always tries to be helpful, so he sets off to find the owner of the mystery pie ... but it doesn't seem to belong to anyone. Fortunately, Aunt Myrtle knows just what to do. "--

Just before Christmas, when Frances sees a sad-eyed organ grinder and his monkey performing near her apartment, she cannot stop thinking about them, wondering where they go at night, and wishing she could do something to help.