Strays Like Us

From the award-winning author of The Patron Saint of Butterflies and The World from Up Here comes a story of a girl who finds friendship where she least expects it. From the moment Fred (never Winifred!) spots a scruffy little mutt with sad eyes, she knows she's in big trouble. Toby's in bad shape, and Fred longs to rescue him from the old man with the mile-long mean streak who lives next door. But Margery -- the straight-talking woman who is fostering Fred -- says going over to their house is against the rules. And since Fred will only be around until her mother comes to grips with her dependence, Fred can't let herself care too deeply. Not about Toby or Margery or Delia, a new classmate whose insistent friendship surprises Fred at every turn. Because the more Fred lets this lovable band of misfits into her heart, the harder it'll be to leave them all behind.In this story of loss and love, acclaimed author Cecilia Galante examines life's difficult choices and how a girl plus the dog she loves can add up to finding family in the most unlikely places.

Molly Moberly knows she doesn't belong in this small Missouri town with her great-aunt Fay. It's just a temporary arrangement--until her mother gets out of the hospital. But then Molly meets Will, a fellow stray, and begins to realize she's not the only one on the outside. In fact, it seems like the town's full of strays--only some end up where they belong sooner than others. Richard Peck has created a rich, compassionate story that will go straight to the heart of every kid who's ever felt like an outsider."This sensitive heroine is one readers will want to take under their wing." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

From the award-winning author of The Patron Saint of Butterflies and The World from Up Here comes a story about grieving hearts, broken families, and how speaking out can save them both. Saying goodbye is never easy.Everything changed after Pippa and Jack's mother died last spring. Pippa stopped speaking, Jack started picking fights, and their father's struggling business began to fail. Now, with school starting again, Pippa doesn't know how she'll manage a class presentation on Spartan warriors when she can't even find the words to tell her father that she wishes he were home more. And Jack is struggling to understand his feelings for the mysterious girl next door. But when Jack and Pippa realize that their dad is getting so desperate for cash to keep the family afloat that he might be going to extreme -- and illegal -- lengths to make ends meet, they are faced with the biggest decision of their lives. How far are they willing to go to keep their family together?Stealing Our Way Home is a poignant, deeply affecting novel about falling apart, finding your voice, and the power of letting go.

From the award-winning author of The Patron Saint of Butterflies comes a story about the courage it takes to face your biggest fears. Wren Baker has never felt brave a day in her life. She doesn't even know what she's afraid of, really. Only that if she raises her voice or leaves her mark or ventures too far from home, she'll risk falling flat on her face. But that all changes when Wren's cousin, Silver, walks into her life. Silver is totally fearless. Maybe that's why she's the most popular girl in the sixth grade. She dares Wren to take risks, to live out loud, to finally spread her wings. And when Silver decides to undertake the journey of a lifetime, Wren is forced to make a decision: Is she in or is she out? There's only one way Wren will ever learn to fly. It's time for her to stand at the edge of the unknown...and jump.Full of heartache and hope, The World From Up Here is a tender, moving story about old secrets and new friendships, anxiety and Asperger syndrome, and what it means to face the things that scare us most.

Sometimes, life becomes unleashed... Sixteen-year-old Iris Moody has a problem controlling her temper—but then, she has a lot to be angry about. Dead mother. Workaholic father. Dumped by her boyfriend. Failing English. When a note in Iris’s journal is mistaken as a threat against her English teacher, she finds herself in trouble not only with school authorities but with the law. In addition to summer school, dog-phobic Iris is sentenced to an entire summer of community service, rehabilitating troubled dogs. Iris believes she is nothing like Roman, the three-legged pit bull who is struggling to overcome his own dark past, not to mention the other humans in the program. But when Roman’s life is on the line, Iris learns that counting on the help of others may be the only way to save him. With sparkling prose and delightful humor, Jennifer Caloyeras’s novel beautifully portrays the human-animal bond.

Could life as a foster kid lead to unexpected benefits? A teenager’s link to animals gives way to human connection in a smart, incisive new novel. (Age 14 and up) Sixteen-year-old Ted O’Connor’s parents just died in a fiery car crash, and now he’s stuck with a set of semi-psycho foster parents, two foster brothers -- Astin, the cocky gearhead, and C.W., the sometimes gangsta -- and an inner-city high school full of delinquents. He’s having pretty much the worst year of his miserable life. Or so he thinks. Is it possible that becoming an orphan is not the worst thing that could have happened to him? Drawing on his trademark wit and sharp insight, master novelist Ron Koertge takes the lead with this smart, surprising story about a boy learning to run with a new pack.

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR'S CHOICE For readers of Atonement, a hauntingly powerful story about the fierce friendship between three sisters and their friend as they grow up on the outskirts of their parents' wild and bohemian artistic lives. On her first day at a new school, Lily befriends Eva and her sisters Beatrice and Heloise, daughters of the infamous avant-garde painter Evan Trentham. An only child from an unremarkable, working-class family, Lily has never experienced a household like the Trenthams'--a community of like-minded artists Evan and his wife have created, all living and working together to escape the stifling conservatism of 1930's Australia. And Lily has never met anyone like Eva, whose unabashed confidence and worldly knowledge immediately draw her in. Infatuated by the creative chaos of the Trenthams and the artists who orbit them, Lily aches to fully belong in their world, craving something beyond her own ordinary life. She becomes a fixture in their home, where she and Eva spend their days lounging in the garden, filching cigarettes and wine, and skirting the fringes of the adults' glamorous lives, who create scandalous art during the day and host lavish, debauched parties by night. But as seductive as the artists' utopian vision appears, behind it lies both darkness and dysfunction. And the further the girls are pulled in, the greater the consequences become. With elegance and vibrancy, THE STRAYS evokes the intense bonds of girlhood friendships, the volatile undercurrents of a damaged family, and the yearning felt by an outsider looking in. PRAISE FOR THE STRAYS "Disturbing and magical....with a grace and eloquence." - NPR Books "Full of lush, mesmerizing detail and keen insight into the easy intimacy between young girls which disappears with adulthood." - The New Yorker "THE STRAYS is a knowing novel, and beautifully done." - Meg Wolitzer, New York Times bestselling author of The Interestings

Rodney, abandoned by his mother at his weird uncle Ray's, encounters a demon named Birthless and must figure out his uncle's secret while preserving himself, his newfound friends, and a sleepy Alabama town from destruction. Strays is an unusual YA adventure story that's part C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters and part Tom Sawyer. The focus of the book isn't on simple lessons, but is instead the story of a lonely boy realizing that there is more to the heavens than stars, more to books than facts, and more to his Uncle Ray than tie-dye shirts and honeybees.