child abuse

Living with her grandfather in a small Oklahoma town, fourteen-year-old Ellie is in constant fear that she will be approached by her father, who is running from the police because he attacked her and mutilated her hand.

A teenage girl who has been reared in a Berkeley commune and a battered and abused neighborhood boy decide to run away to San Francisco although neither are prepared for the dangers and temptations of street life.

Eight-year-old Carrie Parker struggles to protect her younger sister Emma from the harsh realities of the impoverished life in North Carolina, using her imagination to create a fairytale world where they can escape from reality.

After suffering years of neglect, Sayre Bellavia wonders if her addict mother, who is now lying near death in a hospital, ever loved her.

In Weaver Falls, New Hampshire, in 1975, seventeen-year-old Jocelyn looks for answers when her lifelong neighbor and friend, Gabe, turns up missing and she learns that, while her boyfriend has been telling everything to a priest, Gabe has been keeping terrible secrets.

Jolene Siana shares the letters she wrote to Ogre, frontman for the band Skinny Puppy, and reflects on how writing those letters helped save Jolene from her inner demons.

The author, Public Guardian of Cook County, Illinois, an area which includes metropolitan Chicago, uses case studies to expose the failure of the child welfare system, arguing that state agencies and courts are not adequately meeting the needs of abused and neglected children, and discusses ways to make the system work.

Presents the stories of teenagers who have run away from home, the reasons why they did so, and possible solutions to the problem of runaways.

A guide for teens discussing the pervasive problem of child abuse in all forms, its effects, and possible solutions. A resource section provides lists of hotlines, associations, and agencies that offer assistance.