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...

"A story of a citywide scavenger hunt and a girl who learns that family--and weirdness--is relative."--publisher.

Middle schoolers Timothy Murphy and Jessamyn Hazard careen downhill on a sailboat which was being towed through Manhattan and fall into the sewers, where they meet interesting characters before being caught by the evil "queen" of this underground society.

Angelique's work at a homeless shelter takes a strange turn when she encounters seven-year-old Jamal and his fantastic stories about a mysterious character named Jacky Wacky who looks out for vulnerable children.

Thirteen-year-old Jeff's life spirals downward into homelessness after his alcoholic mother loses her job.--

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.

Brought to Moscow in 1990s Russia by his mother's abusive boyfriend, five-year-old Mishka is forced by a gang of homeless children to lie and steal until he finds comfort and love with a pack of dogs. Includes historical note.

Opin, his brother Emjay, and their mother live in a car and are trying to get to Los Angeles where they hope an uncle and a new life are waiting, but even after finding a stray dog, Opin's longing for a stable home intensifies as his brother's reckless ways hit a new high.

Abigail's parents, believing the end of the world is near, sell their house, give the money to an end-of-times preacher, and drive from North Carolina to San Francisco where they remain homeless and destitute, as Abigail fights to keep her parents, her twin brother, and herself united against all odds.

As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.