Poverty Fiction

Set in London's backstreet slums, Oliver Twist is the story of a workhouse orphan captured and thrust into a den of thieves, where some of Dickens' most depraved villains preside: the incorrigible Artful Dodger; the barbarous bully Bill Sikes; and the terrible Fagin, whose knavery threatens to send them all to the gallows. This was the first of Dickens' works to depict realistically London's impoverished underworld, and to illustrate his belief that poverty leads to crime.

"Where do baby apes sleep? In apricots! I'm Elsa, and that's one of my jokes (I tell LOTS of jokes and I'm going to be a big star one day). I do my best to cheer my family up - but no one seems to laugh much any more. Not since we lost our lovely house and had to move into a bed and breakfast hotel."

"Il s'appelle Tristan. Elle s'appelle Camille. Ils ont trente ans... à eux deux. Ils vont s'aimer follement, puis mourir trop tôt, sans doute d'avoir trop aimé. Ces deux héros et leur petit garçon, Alexis, m'accompagnent depuis mes 17 ans."

Однажды шестнадцатилетняя Марта решает сделать шаг в неизвестность и навстречу свободе. Выскользнув из окна своей комнаты в школе-интернате, она отправляется в, казалось бы, увлекательное путешествие. Марта верит, что знает дорогу и сможет справиться со всем сама. Но лес, в котором она оказывается, гораздо темнее, больше и страшнее любых ее ожиданий. Ей предстоят две недели одиночества, отчаяния, надежды и борьбы за жизнь, которые навсегда изменят не только ее саму, но и случайных людей, оказавшихся втянутыми в эту историю. Мотоциклист, подобравший ее на трассе.

At 12, Emily Parmenter is left mostly to herself after her mother disappears and her beloved older brother dies. Emily has built a life around the faded plantation where her remote father and hunting-obsessed brothers raise hunting spaniels. It is a meager, masculine world, but to Emily it has magic. And then comes Lulu Foxworth, troubled daughter of a truly grand plantation, who has run away from her hectic Charleston debutante season.

Angelina and Zack couldn’t be anymore different; one lives in apparent riches and the other in poverty. They meet online and a friendship blooms, but then things in Angelina’s life take a turn for the worst and she finds herself turning to the only person she thinks loves her – Zack. With everything against them, can Zack and Angelina cross the distance to change her life before it's too late?

Abby is starting high school - it should be exciting, so why doesn't she care? Abby quickly feels like she's losing a grip on her once-happy life. The only thing she cares about anymore is talking to Luke, a guy she met online, who understands. It feels dangerous and yet good to chat with Luke - he is her secret, and she's his. Then Luke asks her to meet him, and she does. But Luke isn't who he says he is. When Abby goes missing, everyone is left to put together the pieces. If they don't, they'll never see Abby again.

Will has the wrong shoes – he's always known it but doesn't know how to change it. Navigating the difficulties of home and school when you feel you stick out is tough, but finding confidence with the help and empathy of friends can be all you need to see the way.

On the verge of her thirteenth birthday, Tess's life is falling apart. Her mother is dead. Her father is like a zombie. And now her beloved cat, Alice, has started running into the street when cars go by, trying to get run over. The only thing Tess can think of that might help? Running away. As she ventures from home, Tess stumbles upon a crew of manga-loving goth kids hiding out in the local haunted house performing seances.

One bright spring morning in the woods of France, a soldier, blinded by the war, is found by a little girl named Coco, and her older sister Marcelle. In return for their kindness, the soldier tells the sisters marvelous tales, each story connected to the keepsake he carries in his pocket: a perfect, tiny, silver donkey.

The "Hollywood" where Sammy Santos and Juliana Rios live is not the West Coast one, the one with all the glitz and glitter. This Hollywood is a tough barrio at the edge of a small town in southern New Mexico. Sammy and his friends, members of the 1969 high school graduating class, face a world of racism, dress codes, war in Vietnam, and barrio violence.

Lucy Lavender loves exploring. After Dad dies, Mom pieces jobs together and struggles to provide for Lucy. When Mom is offered a job in Sea Rock Cove, the coastal town where Dad grew up, Lucy hopes this is her chance to pursue her dream of becoming a marine biologist. On Lucy's first day at her new school, she is excited to go to Sea Rock and see Dad’s beloved sea stars. When Lucy learns the sea stars are dying, she becomes determined to save them. But as Lucy gets involved with the people of Sea Rock Cove, she learns there is a lot more beneath the surface of the town.

Following the latest installment of his campaign of terror, he unearths a dark, magical mirror. The mirror should have remained lost with its secrets buried deep within it. Instead, Peter freely chooses to help restore an evil force who will exact his revenge on the world, while revealing deeply guarded family secrets.

Twelve-year-old Lowen Grover is still reeling from the shooting death of his best friend, Abe, when he stumbles across an article about a small town giving away homes for just one dollar. It seems like the perfect escape from Flintlock and all of the awful memories associated with the city - and to his surprise, his mum, dad, and older brother are all onboard. Only his sister, Anneth, is reluctant to leave her friends and the familiarity (and amenities!) of Flintlock, but with the rest of the family anxious to do what’s best for grief-stricken Lowen, her protests fall on deaf ears. But is the Dollar Program too good to be true?

America is broken. You don't need a fistful of statistics to know this. Visit any city, and evidence of our shattered social compact will present itself. From Appalachia to rural Texas, the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest stretches to unimaginable chasms. In Tales of Two Americas, some of the literary world's most exciting writers look beyond numbers and wages to convey what it feels like to live in this divided nation. Their extraordinarily powerful stories, essays, and poems demonstrate how boundaries break down when experiences are shared.

In the underground tunnels below Grand Central Terminal, Lee Stringer - homeless and drug-addicted for 11 years - found a pencil to run through his crack pipe. One day he used it to write. Soon writing became a habit that won out over drugs, and before long Stringer had created one of the most powerful urban memoirs of our time. With humane wisdom and a biting wit, Stringer chronicles the unraveling of his seemingly secure existence as a marketing executive and his odyssey of survival on the streets of New York.

La vida en el pequeño pueblo de Avonlea cambiará rotundamente con la llegada de Ana Shirley, una niña huérfana que fue adoptada por Marilla y Matthew Cuthbert, dos hermanos solteros de mediana edad, para vivir en su casa familiar de Tejas Verdes. Con su carácter despierto y sociable, y su vivacidad, risas y lágrimas, Ana consigue formar parte de una familia y tener un lugar al que podrá llamar hogar para siempre. Aventúrate a descubrir el mundo a través de los ojos de la brillante y perspicaz Ana, quien con su imaginación te hará sentir el mundo como algo nuevo, lleno de alegrías, emociones y risas.

Nikki Black finds herself homeless and wandering the streets of Los Angeles, when she begins to uncover a sinister cover-up that endangers herself and others.

La riscoperta di un grande classico, che chiunque sia stato a scuola in veste di scolaro o di insegnante dovrebbe conoscere; l’ascoltatore potrà agevolmente riconoscersi in uno degli alunni, perché i ritratti deamicisiani hanno i caratteri dell’universalità; uno spaccato di umanità italiana dopo l’unità. Un altro testo erroneamente considerato solo per ragazzi in quanto istruttivo per tutti. Adatto a: tutti; in particolare: agli appassionati della storia d’Italia, a tutti coloro che sono attenti alle sfumature psicologiche dei personaggi, perché da esse possano ricavare il ritratto della nazione che siamo diventati.

Pen's life is about secrets: the secret of the city's spirits, deities and monsters, living just beyond the notice of modern Londoners; the secret of Pen's intricate scars that disfigure her so cruelly; and the most closely guarded secret of all: Parva, her mirror-sister, forged from her reflections in a school bathroom mirror.