Poverty Fiction

Always be ready for the worst day of your life. This is the mantra that Becca Aldaine has grown up with. Her family is part of a community of doomsday preppers, a neighborhood that prioritizes survivalist training over class trips or senior prom. They're even arranging Becca's marriage with Roy Kang, the only eligible boy in their community. Roy is a nice guy, but he's so enthusiastic about prepping that Becca doesn't have the heart to tell him she's planning to leave as soon as she can earn a full ride to a college far, far away.

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.

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.

When Ari's mother died four years ago, she had two final wishes: that Ari and her older brother, Gage, would stay together always, and that Ari would go to Carter, the middle school for gifted students. So when eighteen-year-old Gage decided he could no longer live with their bossy guardian, Janna, Ari knew she had to go with him - even though she'd miss baking cookies with Janna and curling up to watch HGTV. What Ari didn't realize was that Gage didn't have an apartment yet.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

My name is Sierra Reeves, and my life is built on lies. I’m not a regular girl. My telekinetic powers can flip the precarious balance between good and evil. On the run from those that seek to use me as a weapon, I seek protection from the magic-bearing marshal Gavin McLoughlin. If anyone can teach me how to stay alive, it’s Gavin, a well-connected supernatural who hums with authority. Too bad Gavin has no interest in training me. He doesn’t trust me and wants me to stay far away from him and his city. I can’t. I need him, and I’m driven to him like a moth to the flame.

Mosca Mye and Eponymous Clent are at it again. Escaping disaster by the skin of their teeth, they find refuge in Toll, a strange gateway town where visitors may neither enter nor leave without paying a price. By day, the city is well-mannered and orderly; by night, it’s host to rogues and villains. Wherever there’s a plot, there’s sure to be treachery, and wherever there’s treachery, there’s sure to be trouble - and where there’s trouble, well, Clent, Mosca, and Saracen can’t be far behind.

Born and raised in Boulder, Colorado, Essence McKree feels older than any 17-year-old she knows. Ever since weed was legalized, Mom has been working in a pot shop, high more often than not. Lately it's been up to Essa to care for her nine-year-old sister, Puck. When Essa meets Oliver - a brainy indoor type, in town for the summer - she is cautious at first, distrustful of the tourist crowd and suspicious of Oliver's mysterious past in Chicago. But Puck is charmed and pushes Essa toward him. Oliver agrees to accompany Essa on a three-day survival game in the Rocky Mountains....

The Russell family came home one evening to find an uninvited visitor sleeping on their porch. Brock appeared to be quite harmless. So they took him in. Knowing the Bible says they are to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, the Russells take Brock into their own home and quickly befriend him - only to find out he has formerly been accused of a horrifying act.

Cordelia Lu Hankins is the half Caucasian, half Chinese - and all albino. She has grown up in a remote lumber town with her distant father and a giant stepmother nicknamed Babe (after Paul Bunyan's blue ox), convinced she is ugly. Then, in the summer of 1918, when she is fourteen, she falls in love with the dashing Squirl. One day they meet on the mountain and Cordy receives her first kiss, as well as a wild ride down a log flume that gets Squirl fired.

Popular author Sarah Dooley offers this tale in which a 12-year-old girl loses everything. Ember’s family’s trailer has been burned to the ground. Now, with the school year about to start, Ember’s family has no money and no place to live. Ember knows she needs to make a fresh start - but with all that’s happened, is this even possible?