abandoned children

"In the world of Norse mythology, humans revere the mighty gods and fear the mystical nature-wielding Jotuns. Abandoned by her own kind and raised in a human orphanage Gunhild, a 12-year-old fire Jotun, longs to prove that she's more than a little troublemaker. As the world heads toward a potential disaster, Gunhild must fight for what's right and follow her own sense of justice, even if no one else will fight for her"--Back cover.

"Seventeen-year-old Bliss Walker has been stuck in a home that doesn't feel like hers for six years. Ever since Mama dropped her off and never came back. Then, the summer before her senior year of high school, two things happen: Mama returns out of the blue, and Bliss meets Blake, a boy who listens like everything she has to say is worth hearing. It should be a dream come true. But as the summer spins on, Bliss finds herself facing a painful choice: between the life she's always longed for, and the world she's starting to make for herself"--Provided by publisher.

On the Road Less Traveled is the inspirational story of Edmund A. Hajim, an American financier and philanthropist who rises from dire childhood circumstances to achieve professional success and personal fulfillment. At age three, Hajim is kidnapped by his father, driven from St. Louis to Los Angeles, and told that his mother is dead. His father soon abandons him in order to seek employment -- mostly in vain -- leaving his son behind in a string of foster homes and orphanages. This establishes a pattern of neglect and desertion that continues for Hajim's entire childhood, forever leaving its mark. From one home to another, the lonely boy learns the value of self-reliance and perseverance despite his financial deprivation and the trauma of being an orphan.

"Twelve-year-old Lulu, burdened with caring for her sister, Serena, since their father disappeared, must learn to trust her new friends and community when secrets and lies catch up with her"--OCLC.

When 6-year-old empath Leah Fern--once 'the youngest and very best fortune teller in the world'--is abandoned by her beautiful magician mother, she is consumed with longing for her mother's return. Until something bizarre happens: on her 21st birthday Leah receives an inheritance from someone she doesn't even know, and finds herself launched on a journey of magical discovery. It's a voyage that will spiral across the United States, Canada, into the Arctic Circle and beyond--and help her make her own life whole by piecing together the mystery surrounding her mother's disappearance.

"Wilde has grown up knowing nothing of his family, and even less about his own identity. . . . Now Wilde has had a hit on the DNA website he has been researching. A 100% match. His father. They meet up, and Wilde soon realises that his father doesn't even know he had a son and is as mystified as Wilde is by his existence. Undaunted, Wilde continues his research for his family on DNA websites where he becomes caught up in a community of online doxxers, a secret group committed to exposing anonymous trolls. Then one by one these doxxers start to die, and it soon becomes clear that a serial killer is targeting this secret community - and that his next victim might be Wilde himself"--OCLC.

"When eleven-year-old Sol arrives at the Ash House, desperate for a cure for his complex pain syndrome, he finds a community of strange children long abandoned by their mysterious Headmaster. The children at the Ash House want the new boy to love their home as much as they do. They give him a name like theirs. They show him the dorms and tell him about the wonderful oasis that the Headmaster has created for them. But the new boy already has a name. Doesn't he? At least he did before he walked through those gates..."--Publisher's description.

"Wren and Sage have been left to fend for themselves in their isolated, off-the-grid, primitive cabin in upstate New York after their mother leaves with their sick younger sister to get help from the nearest town. As the months pass their hope vanishes when a stranger comes. The stranger claims to be looking for the girls' mother, and he won't leave without them. The sisters break the rule to never go beyond the forest in order to escape. But once on the other side the sisters must confront what has been hidden from them, and what they're running from"--Provided by publisher.

"Thirteen-year-old Eli likes baggy clothes, baseball caps, and one girl in particular. Her seventeen-year-old sister Anna is more traditionally feminine; she loves boys and staying out late. They are sisters...Their dad has long been out of the picture, and their mom lives at the mercy of her next drink. When their mom lands herself in enforced rehab, Anna and Eli are left to fend for themselves. Eli and Anna have each gotten used to telling lies as a means of survival, but as they navigate a world without their mother, they must learn how to accept help, and let other people in"--.

When Cameron discovers a baby abandoned in the woods, he tries to discover whether his sister is the mother.