Poverty Fiction

O. Henry wove several stories together into this highly episodic narrative, taking his title and inspiration from Lewis Carroll's ballad of the walrus and the carpenter in Through the Looking-Glass. The stories are set in the fictional country of Anchuria in Central America, a banana republic where larceny is rampant and revolution lurking in every impoverished back alley. O. Henry offers a cutting satire of contemporary politics and prejudices.

Anya Anderson doesn't just need a big break, she needs any break. Living on the streets doesn't leave a girl many options, so when she scores a gig reporting on the Seconds to Juliet tour, she jumps at the chance to earn enough money to sleep somewhere safe. And the paycheck will get bigger—and keep her off the streets for good—if she can dig up dirt on Will Fray, the irritatingly hot "shy guy" of the band.

On a night of wild storms, two troubled figures escape from captivity. One is a 15-year-old boy, Samuel Miles, a.k.a. "Smiler", wrongly convicted of theft and sent to a young offenders institution. The other is a cheetah, Yarra, a restless resident of Longleat Wildlife Park. Both are in danger from the outside world—and each other—but somehow their lives become inextricably bound up as they fight for survival on the edge of Salisbury Plain.

Floss's parents are divorced, and she divides up her week, spending five days with her mum, her new step-dad and her baby half-brother. The other two days Floss spends with her dad, helping him to run his greasy spoon cafe. But their simple arrangement is thrown into disarray when Floss's mum decides to move to Australia. Making the difficult decision to stay at home, Floss moves in permanently with her dad and they muddle along happily together, surviving on chip butties and enjoying visits to the local funfair.

Luisa, 15, als Baby aus Peru adoptiert, wächst behütet in einem wohlhabenden Elternhaus auf. Sie hat eine besondere Fähigkeit: Luisa kann im Dunkeln sehen. Als sie im nahen Wald einen jungen Obdachlosen entdeckt, schließt sie ihn ins Herz. Tim lässt sich von ihr versorgen und sogar verstecken, denn er hat allen Grund, unsichtbar zu bleiben. Durch Luisas Gabe wird sie zur Komplizin und gerät in ein Netz aus Lügen und Verbrechen, das sich immer enger zuzieht.

Briony thought she knew all about Wicked and its dangerous woods. What she didn't expect was that there were more than creatures who go bump in the night, more than creatures the Preservation Society have to watch out for. Aunt Sophie, Pietre, and all the residents of Wicked Woods have been waiting for this moment...a moment that would change Briony forever.

In the seaside town of Nautilus, Minerva Gutiérrez absolutely hates her job at the local ice cream stand, where her sexist boss makes each day worse than the last. But she needs the money: kicked out of school and stranded by her mom's most recent hospitalization, she dreams of escaping her dead-end hometown. When an armed robbery at the ice cream stand stirs up rumors about money hidden on the property, Min teams up with her neighbor CeCe, also desperate for cash, to find it. The bonus? Getting revenge on her boss in the process.

From a complicated Haitian life to heart surgery, to homelessness, Cynthia Josaphat’s struggles to survive her new life in the United States seem endless. After she’s taken from the only home she’s ever known by a domineering yet distant father, Cynthia’s life takes a sudden turn toward despair. Away from her mother for the first time, the Haitian teenager resolves to make the best of a difficult transition to America. Life in Haiti wasn’t perfect, but it was the only life she knew. Now, suddenly uprooted, Cynthia’s troubles have only just begun.

Some battles cannot be won. The time has come to fight. There are no allies left. There is nothing but flames ahead. The end has arrived. Prepare for the final installment in the Ena of Ilbrea series.

Ancient magic lurks in the shadows. The Black Bloods’ home is more magnificent than Ena imagined, and more perilous than the life she fled. The time has come for the Black Bloods to unite against the Guilds, but loyalties born in blood will be tested by fire. And not everyone she loves will survive the flames. As murder and malice surround her, Ena must prove her innocence or risk a fate worse than death. Facing her enemies will test every friendship she has and risk the heart she has won.

After Philly teenager Alexis Duncan is injured in a gang shooting, her dreams of a college scholarship and pro basketball career vanish in an instant. To avoid becoming another Black teen trapped in her poverty-stricken neighborhood, she shifts her focus to the school's STEM team. Academics have never been her thing, but Alexis is motivated by Aamani Chakrabarti, the new Indian student who becomes her friend (and crush?). Alexis begins to see herself as so much more than an athlete. But as her future starts to reform, Alexis's own doubts and old loyalties pull her back into harm's way.

School is out for the summer, but not for 18-year-old Michael and 17-year-old Shelly. The pair of them meet while serving court-ordered community service, and both are driven by secrets and lies.

A propulsive social justice adventure by renowned activist and award-winning documentarian Ruchira Gupta, I Kick and I Fly is an inspiring, hopeful story of triumph about a girl in Bihar, India, who escapes being sold into the sex trade when a local hostel owner helps her to understand the value of her body through kung fu. On the outskirts of the Red Light District in Bihar, India, fourteen-year-old Heera is living on borrowed time until her father sells her into the sex trade to help feed their family and repay his loans.

Running away from her past, Elisa finds herself homeless in Hawaii. The streets aren't what they seem, though—even in paradise—and cops make her stay in a "homeless park." She's only 17 and with a man she hardly knows, but they must learn to work together if they expect to survive as street musicians.

Emily, Simon und Marcus erkunden eine alte Burg im tiefsten Winter. Obwohl Emily und Simon wenig über den enigmatischen Marcus wissen, steckt seine Begeisterung für die Festung sie an.

Full-cast performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the novel. Dickens' tale of Pip, a young man "removed from his present sphere of life" and cast into a Victorian nightmare, is a powerful audio drama to be enjoyed and appreciated as an important piece of social criticism.

This story is loosely inspired by the true account of four young children who lived in a casino records warehouse. At the same time, their mom worked to escape their alcoholic father with homicidal tendencies.

When her mother dies, fifteen-year-old Mari is desperate to avoid being caught up in the foster system. Again. And to complicate matters, she is now the only one who can take care of her super-smart and on-the-spectrum nine-year-old stepbrother, Conor. Is there anyone Mari can trust to help them? Certainly not her mother’s current boyfriend, Dennis. Not the doctors or her teachers, who would be obliged to call in social services. So in a desperate move, Mari takes Conor and sets out to find their estranged grandmother.

When you live in your car the way 18-year-old Eddie and his sister, Maya, do, the rules are pretty simple: lay low, trust no one, and make sure you have plenty of duct tape on hand. But Maya is growing up fast. She's forgetting how to play the game, and Eddie is finding it harder and harder to keep them both safe from the outside world. When their lives suddenly become complicated through a mistake Maya makes, Eddie begins to lose his composure. And why wouldn't he? He hasn't had time to address his own emotional wounds.

The only thing I hate more than baseball is my father. Now I will do whatever it takes not to think about him, or his God. I’m on my way to pursue my dream of becoming a screenwriter. I don’t know how I’ll get to LA. I don’t know what I’ll do once I’m there. I just know I’m going to do what I want and I’m never going home. The day I walked out that door, I left all that behind. Time to move on to greater things.