A coming of age novel in verse about sixteen-year-old Billy who runs away from his alcoholic father, lives in an abandoned freight train, falls in love with a rich girl, and ultimately learns the meaning of family.
One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones
Fifteen-year-old Ruby Milliken leaves her best friend, her boyfriend, her aunt, and her mother's grave in Boston and reluctantly flies to Los Angeles to live with her father, a famous movie star who divorced her mother before Ruby was born.
The Brimstone Journals by Ronald Koertge
In a series of short interconnected poems, students at a high school nicknamed Brimstone reveal the violence existing and growing in their lives.
Three Rivers Rising: A Novel of the Johnstown Flood by Jame Richards
Sixteen-year-old Celestia is a wealthy member of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, where she meets and falls in love with Peter, a hired hand who lives in the valley below, and by the time of the torrential rains that lead to the disastrous Johnstown flood of 1889, she has been disowned by her family and is staying with him in Johnstown. Includes an author's note and historical timeline.
